Hong Kong's personal security situation received the highest grade of any place we surveyed, including the US and Australia. –Asian Intelligence survey, Quality of Life for Expatriate Families, March 21, 2001. The survey by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy covered 12 Asian economies, as well as Australia and the USA.
Hong Kong remains one of the world's safest large cities. The overall crime rate in 2000 was 1 137 cases per 100 000 population, while the violent crime rate was 218 cases per 100 000 population. The figures were lower by 0.5% and 6.5% respectively over 1999 and were correspondingly the third and second-lowest rates of the past 27 years.
The crime rate continued to decrease in the first quarter of 2001. The overall crime rate dropped by 10.4%, while the violent crime rate dropped by 15.3% compared with the same period in 2000.
As at April 1, 2001, the Hong Kong Police Force had a strength of about 34 000, comprising 28 100 disciplined staff and 5 900 civilian staff. Police operations are augmented by 4 900 volunteers of the Hong Kong Auxiliary Police Force. Hong Kong's police-to-population ration of 414 officers per 100000 people in 2000 was one of the highest in the world, and compared to about 205 in Singapore in 2000; and 359 in Tokyo, 195 in Ottawa and 141 in Toronto (1998).
Hong Kong police continue to maintain close liaison with international law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and CIA, the Australian Federal Police, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Scotland Yard and Interpol. Such close relationships help Hong Kong in the ongoing fight against organised crime, drug trafficking and money laundering.
In November 2000, the US government removed Hong Kong from its list of 'major drug transit countries/entities'. Hong Kong had been labelled a major drug transit centre since 1987.
This was welcome news, since the importation of dangerous drugs into Hong Kong and their re-export to the US using land and sea routes has virtually ceased. There have been no significant seizures of dangerous drugs destined for the US via Hong Kong since 1992.
Explaining the US government's decision to remove Hong Kong from the list, President Bill Clinton said: 'Over the past few years Hong Kong's role as a transit point for US-bound drugs has declined markedly.'; He cited stringent law enforcement actions and extradition agreements with various countries including the US as supporting evidence for the US government's decision.
Hong Kong SAR delegations had travelled to the United States in November 1999 and July 2000 to brief and update relevant authorities on the anti-drug efforts in Hong Kong. Subsequently, a number of key US officials involved in anti-narcotics work visited Hong Kong in 2000 to gain first-hand information on Hong Kong's anti-drug situation.
The HKSAR Government was pleased that ongoing efforts and achievements to combat drugs and money laundering had been recognised by the US government. This was reinforced by the fact that Hong Kong had been selected to take over the 2001/02 presidency of the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering.
Emigration from Hong Kong reached its lowest level in 20 years after six consecutive years of decline.
In 2000, the estimated number of emigrants was 11 900, a 7% decrease over the 12 900 emigrants in 1999. These figures show that Hong Kong people are confident about the future of the Special Administrative Region.
In recent years, 80-90% of all Hong Kong emigrants have gone to Canada, the USA or Australia.
By the end of 2000, there were 513 200 expatriates living in Hong Kong. Of those, almost 240 000 were from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, many of whom were working as domestic helpers.
During 2000, almost 135 000 people came to settle in Hong Kong.
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