11
Immigration and Tourism
事入
旅務境
遊和
As a result of the abolition in October 1980 of the 'reached-base' policy - which allowed illegal immigrants from China who reached the urban areas to remain - coupled with legislation making the carrying of a legal form of identity compulsory for everyone over 15 years of age, illegal immigration from China during 1982 was again kept at a substantially reduced level, although showing some increase in the figure achieved in 1981.
In efforts to halt the inflow altogether, further preparations were made for the issue, commencing in 1983, of computerised identity cards. This $400 million scheme will act as a counter-measure against identity card forging syndicates which have flourished since the abolition of the reached-base policy. The new cards will be more difficult to forge and a quick check of suspect cards will be possible. This in turn, will ensure that illegal immigrants who are remaining in Hong Kong by holding forged identity cards will eventually be detected and repatriated.
Despite the introduction of legislation in December 1981 to stem the illegal flow of children from China to Hong Kong, children were still being smuggled into Hong Kong during the year. The law providing for the removal of unlawful entrants now applies equally to children, and illegal immigrants giving birth in Hong Kong are normally returned to China.
At the same time, defences against illegal immigration were being maintained through security forces based at the border and in Hong Kong waters.
Immigration
World-wide recession had remarkably little effect on the number of travellers passing in and out of Hong Kong, although overall increases were marginal compared with previous years. Passenger traffic totalled some 25 million, an increase of five per cent compared with 23.8 million in 1981.
The Immigration Department
The work of the Immigration Department falls into two main streams - controlling people moving into and out of Hong Kong, and providing travel documents and registration facilities for local residents. Immigration policies are framed to limit permanent population growth, while immigration procedures for tourists and businessmen are streamlined to the maximum extent possible. Of the department's staff of 3 914, some 2 062 are members of the Immigration Service.
Immigration Control
All immigration control points were extremely busy during the year. The bulk of the China traffic (8.2 million) was carried by rail via Lo Wu, which remained under the heaviest