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Immigration (Amendment) Bill: committee stage
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in moving the committee stage amendments of the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 1996 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr Chairman,
I move that clause 2 be amended as set out under my name in the paper circularised to Honourable Members.
The proposed amendment to clause 2 addresses a concern expressed by some Honourable Members, and clarifies our legislative intent while retaining the broad principles of the original Bill.
We accept the concern, expressed in the course of the Bills Committee's deliberations, that the bill as originally drafted may be construed as unnecessarily restricting the court's ability to hear evidence before it and to draw its own conclusions. The proposed amendment removes such a restriction on the court. Instead, it reinforces our legislative intent by making it clear that the purpose of detention "pending removal" includes the purpose of "pending a response from the Vietnamese Government".
It is common sense that our ability to repatriate an illegal immigrant, including a Vietnamese illegal immigrant, depends on the willingness of the country of origin to accept him. In reality, when a Vietnamese migrant is screened out as a "non-refugee", we will seek the agreement of the Vietnamese Government to accept him for return. When clearance is given by the Vietnamese Government, we then make appropriate arrangements, depending on whether he is to be returned under the voluntary repatriation programme or the orderly repatriation programme, to effect his return. Until then, he is detained. That is our detention policy, and that we thought was the effect of Section 13D of the Immigration Ordinance.
However, while the Court of Appeal in Hong Kong supported our interpretation of the law as it stood, the Privy Council did not. In order to ensure that the law reflects clearly our detention policy, we seek to amend it by making clear that the purpose of "pending removal" includes the purpose of "pending a response from the Vietnamese Government". There is nothing in it which gives rise to indefinite or arbitrary detention, or in any way infringes common law principles or our obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as applied to Hong Kong.
Mr Chairman, I beg to move.
End
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