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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, to a question by the Hon Gary Fan Kwok-wai in the Legislative Council today (April 17):
Question:
It has been reported that the Coastal Defense and Anti-Smuggling Office of Guangdong Province disclosed at the end of last year that 95% of the travellers commuting between Guangdong Province and Hong Kong several times on the same day were parallel traders. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective monthly numbers of mainland people entering Hong Kong on multiple endorsements (i.e. multiple-entry permits) through land boundary control points during the period from April 2009 to February 2013 (set out a breakdown of the figures by month and the number of days between their entries and departures in table 1 in Question Annex) ;
(b) of a breakdown of the mainland people entering and leaving Hong Kong on the same day referred to in (a) (set out the breakdown, by the number of entries to Hong Kong made on the day they entered and left Hong Kong and by month, in table 2 in Question Annex); and
(c) of the numbers of the mainland people referred to in (a) who were arrested, prosecuted and convicted in Hong Kong because of their participation in parallel trading activities (set out a breakdown of the numbers by month in table 3 in Question Annex)?
Reply:
President,
(a) and (b) Currently, Mainland residents may come to Hong Kong on the strength of various multiple endorsements, including one-year multiple individual visit endorsement (may stay up to seven days for each entry) and one-year multiple endorsement for visiting relatives (may stay up to 90 days for each entry). The numbers of arrivals on the strength of these two endorsements from April 2009 to February 2013 are tabulated in the table in Reply Annex.
The Administration does not maintain statistics of other multiple endorsements or statistics referred to in the question.
(c) The relevant departments have stepped up enforcement actions against parallel trading activities since September 2012. Law enforcement departments, including the Immigration Department and Police, have mounted a number of large scale operations since September 19, 2012. As at February 28, 2013, 815 Mainland residents suspected of being involved in parallel trading activities were arrested. Among them, 205 Mainland residents were prosecuted and 181 convicted.
Ends/Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:10
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