124
Immigration
TOURISM AND IMMIGRATION
The work of the Immigration Department falls into four divisions the control of people moving in and out of Hong Kong; the issue of travel documents to local residents; the issue of visas and entry certificates on behalf of Britain and Common- wealth countries without their own visa office in Hong Kong; and naturalisation and registration under the British Nationality Acts.
To match the increasing volume and complexity of immigration case work, the establishment was increased to 758 immigration service officers and 433 other officers. The recruits included more than 30 university graduate immigration officers, the highest number of graduates to join the department in one year. An additional two floors were allocated giving the department a total of 10 floors in International Building. The investigation division moved to spacious accommodation in nearby Li Po Chun Chambers. Various internal moves have been planned to benefit both the public and the staff next year.
=
The travel trade is particularly sensitive to variations in the world economic climate and it was no surprise to find immigration statistics reflecting the general slow-down of economic activity. Hong Kong remained a strong attraction to over- seas Chinese, and it was necessary to introduce measures to reduce the numbers of those who come as visitors with the intention of staying illegally. Emigration from Hong Kong was affected by a general tightening of immigration control overseas as countries sought to grapple with rising unemployment. Even so traffic increased by 0.12 per cent and brought the number of passengers passing through immigration control to a record 9,664,479. Of these, 3,473,646 travelled by air (up three per cent); 4,408,915 travelled by sea (mainly Macau traffic, down one per cent), and 1,781,918 by land (down three per cent). A total of 4,076 passengers were refused permission to land, of these, 665 were allowed to transit Hong Kong under supervision. The remainder, who were returned from where they came, held invalid travel documents, or were personally undesirable, or were outside the rules for residence. The number of persons entering from China legally fell from 55,659 in 1973 to 32,920.
IL
Demand for travel documents was uneven---62,391 British (Hong Kong) passports (53,835 in 1973); 78,052 Certificates of Identity (90,772 in 1973); and 487,100 Re- entry Permits (693,542 in 1973) were issued.
In February, the Governor delegated authority to the Director of Immigration to sign certificates of naturalisation and registration, and in March the naturalisa- tion unit of the Colonial Secretariat was absorbed into the Immigration Department's own naturalisation section. The machinery for dealing with applications remains unchanged. They are seen by the Naturalisation Applications Board, with members drawn from the Home Affairs Department and the Security Branch of the Colonial Secretariat, with an assistant director of immigration as chairman. During the year, 1,011 applications for naturalisation were received (1,018 in 1973), plus 1,490 applica- tions for registration as citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (1,345 in 1973).
The influx of illegal immigrants continued to cause concern. During the year, 22,928 cases of illegal entry were recorded (21,758 in 1973). During the year, 445