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Following is a question by the Hon Christopher Chung and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, in the Legislative Council today (May 20):
Question:
A number of crimes, including robberies with firearms, burglaries, kidnapping, etc., allegedly committed by mainland people in Hong Kong have occurred recently. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of serious crimes allegedly committed by mainland people in Hong Kong in the past three years and its breakdown by type;
(2) of the number of mainland people arrested in the past three years for having allegedly committed crimes in Hong Kong, broken down by their means of entry to Hong Kong in Annex 1;
(3) among the serious crimes allegedly committed by mainland people in Hong Kong in the past three years, of the respective percentages of cases detected by the Hong Kong Police and the mainland public security authorities; and
(4) whether it has assessed if there has been an upward trend in the numbers of crimes committed by mainland people in Hong Kong in recent years; if the assessment result is in the affirmative, of the causes for that, and the corresponding measures to be taken by the authorities?
Reply:
President,
The Police have been paying attention to the trend and modus operandi of various types of crimes, including those involving illegal immigrants and visitors. Effective preventive measures and enhanced law enforcement actions have been vigorously adopted by the Police to maintain law and order in Hong Kong.
Our consolidated reply to various parts of Hon Chung's question is as follows:
A total of 1 443, 1 452 and 1 529 persons from the Mainland, including illegal immigrants and visitors, were arrested for committing criminal offences in Hong Kong between 2012 and 2014 respectively. Breakdowns of such arrestees by means of entry and by type of criminal offences involved are at Annex 2. The Police do not maintain figures of cases respectively detected by the Hong Kong Police and Mainland public security authorities.
According to Government statistics, there were 34.66 million, 40.47 million and 46.99 million arrivals from the Mainland between 2012 and 2014 respectively. Figures of criminal offenders out of every 100 000 Mainland visitors dropped from 3.9 in 2012 and 3.3 in 2013 to 3.1 in 2014. The Police shall continue to keep a close watch on the situation, maintain close contact and exchange intelligence with Mainland and overseas law enforcement agencies to combat illegal activities.
Ends/Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Issued at HKT 13:45
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