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POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION
Department received 72 applications for declaration of change of nationality, 560 applications for naturalisation as Chinese nationals, 67 applications for renunciation of Chinese nationality and 53 applications for restoration of Chinese nationality.
Assistance to Hong Kong Residents Outside Hong Kong
The Immigration Department works closely with the Security Bureau, the HKSAR Government Office in Beijing, the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong and the overseas Chinese diplomatic and consular missions in providing assistance to Hong Kong residents who have run into trouble or been involved in accidents or natural disasters outside Hong Kong. The assistance that is normally rendered to such Hong Kong residents includes confirmation of their identities, liaison with overseas governments to seek up-to-date information on their condition, conveyance of information to their family members in Hong Kong, issue of travel documents urgently to facilitate their return to Hong Kong or onward trips to elsewhere and, if necessary, liaising with their family members in Hong Kong for rendering financial assistance to cover the costs of their return passages.
With effect from January 1, 2001, a Reciprocal Notification Mechanism between Mainland authorities and the HKSAR Government has come into operation. Under the arrangements, the Mainland Notification Unit will notify the Liaison Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force of the imposition of any criminal compulsory measure on suspected offenders who are Hong Kong residents. Notifications will also be made in cases of unnatural deaths of Hong Kong residents in the Mainland. The Immigration Department and the Beijing Office will provide appropriate and feasible assistance to the family members upon their request.
In 2002, the Immigration Department handled 994 requests for assistance from Hong Kong residents outside Hong Kong.
Establishment and Training
The Immigration Department had 4 235 disciplined staff and 1 565 civilian staff at the end of the year, compared with 4 137 and 1 638 respectively in 2001.
The department provides training for new and serving officers. During the year, serving officers received various types of job-related and management training. In addition, 27 were sent for overseas and Mainland attachment and training.
Vietnamese Refugees and Migrants
Since 1975, Hong Kong has received more than 200 000 people from Vietnam. No Vietnamese asylum seeker had ever been turned away.
Despite its tiny size and steadily growing population, Hong Kong had absorbed some 16 000 Indo-Chinese people since the late 1970s. At the end of 2002, 34 Vietnamese refugees and 33 Vietnamese migrants still remained in the HKSAR. This was after the resettlement of more than 143 000 Vietnamese refugees in other countries, the repatriation of more than 67 000 Vietnamese migrants and the local resettlement of some 1 376 Vietnamese refugees/migrants since February 2000.
With the formal conclusion of the internationally agreed Comprehensive Plan of Action and in view of the changed circumstances in Vietnam, the HKSAR ended the 'Port of First Asylum' policy for Vietnamese with effect from January 9, 1998.