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Illegal immigrants involvement in crimes
Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Hon-chung and a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a)
(b)
of the proportion of street crimes committed by illegal immigrants to the total number of street crimes;
what measures have been put in place by the Government to prevent illegal immigrants committing crimes in the territory?
Reply:
Mr President,
non-street crimes" in our
We do not differentiate between "street crimes" and statistical record, and therefore no separate statistics on the category of "street crimes" is available. Nevertheless, I believe the common perception of "street crimes" include robbery, burglary, snatching, pick-pocketing and the various types of theft. I will therefore use the statistics on these crimes in my reply. Also, as the status of the culprits can only be ascertained upon arrest, I can only provide the number and proportion of IIs arrested for "street crimes" to the total number of persons so arrested. In addition, I will include in my reply the relevant figures for Ils from China only, as over 99% of II criminals detected came from China.
I shall now answer the two specific questions in turn.
(a)
The number of IIs arrested for robbery has increased, from 104 in 1993 to 194 in 1994, and to 203 in 1995. These figures represent about 4%, 8.7% and 10.8% respectively of the total number of persons arrested for robbery in those years. Less than 0.5% of the arrested IIs was involved in robbery with firearms, and last year there was only one II so arrested.
The number of IIs arrested for burglary has also increased, from 54 in 1993 to 119 in 1994, and to 224 in 1995. These figures represent about 3%, 7% and 11% respectively of the total number of persons arrested for this crime in those years.
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