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The Immigration Department has apprehended 109 suspected immigration offenders in a series of operations targeting illegal workers. The department has also stopped 180 visitors, who were suspected of being illegal workers, from entering Hong Kong at border control points.
During the six-day operations, immigration officers arrested 65 suspected illegal workers, nine overstayers, five illegal immigrants and 30 local employers. Six counterfeit Hong Kong Smart identity cards were also found on the illegal workers working in restaurants/food shops.
The counterfeit identity cards did not have the security features found in genuine cards and were not difficult to detect upon careful examination, an Immigration Department spokesman said.
Operations began at 6am on November 27 and ended at 9.30pm yesterday (December 3). Immigration officers raided 205 target locations which included restaurants/food shops, warehouses, trading companies, hair salons, foot reflexology centres, refuse collection depots, lodging places and decoration units in premises.
The 65 illegal workers arrested included 17 males and 48 females aged from 23 to 64 who were suspected of having breached their condition of stay. One of the workers came from France, one from Tonga, 10 from Indonesia, four from the Philippines and 49 from the Mainland. The five illegal immigrants arrested were aged between 25 and 47. Four are mainlanders and one is from Vietnam.
Thirty Hong Kong residents, aged between 32 and 69, were arrested for employing illegal workers or aiding and abetting others in breaching their conditions of stay.
The department also simultaneously strengthened control over arriving visitors at Border Control points. Throughout the operations, the department conducted detailed examinations on 853 visitors. Of them, 180 were refused permission to land as they failed to meet the immigration requirements.
"Visitors are not allowed to take up employment, whether paid or unpaid, without the prior permission of the Director of Immigration. Offenders are liable to prosecution and, upon conviction, to a maximum fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for two years. It is also an offence to employ people who are not lawfully employable. The maximum penalty is a fine of $350,000 and imprisonment for three years. Any person who, having landed in Hong Kong unlawfully, remains in Hong Kong without the authority of the director, is liable to a fine of $25,000 and imprisonment for three years. Aiders and abettors are also liable to prosecution and penalty," an Immigration spokesman said.
Ends/Thursday, December 4, 2008
Issued at HKT 17:35
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