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POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION
Establishment and Training
The Immigration Department had 4 439 disciplined staff and 1 567 civilian staff at the end of the year, compared with 4 235 and 1 565 respectively in 2002.
The Immigration Department provides training for new and serving officers. During the year, serving officers received various types of job-related and management training. In addition, 23 officers were sent for overseas or Mainland study and training.
Vietnamese Refugees and Migrants
Since 1975, Hong Kong has received more than 200 000 people from Vietnam. Up to the end of 2003, more than 143 000 Vietnamese refugees had resettled in other countries and more than 72 000 Vietnamese migrants had been repatriated.
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.
In practice, it means the special statutory provisions on the screening for refugee status and related review procedures for Vietnamese ceased to have effect on new arrivals from that date. These people are treated in the same way as illegal immigrants from elsewhere and will be repatriated as soon as possible.
On February 22, 2000, the Government announced a Widened Local Resettlement Scheme to allow some 1 400 Vietnamese refugees and eligible Vietnamese migrants to apply for settlement in Hong Kong. As a corollary, the last refugee centre (Pillar Point Vietnamese Refugees Centre) in Hong Kong was closed on June 1, 2000. Thus the Vietnamese programme on which Hong Kong had worked for 25 years was concluded in an orderly, peaceful and humanitarian manner. By the end of 2003, a total of 960 Vietnamese refugees and 437 Vietnamese migrants had applied under the scheme to make Hong Kong their permanent home.
Home Pages
Security Bureau: http://www.gov.hk/sb
Immigration Department: http://www.immd.gov.hk
Census and Statistics Department: http://www.gov.hk/censtatd