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Immigration Service (Amendment) Bill gazetted
The Immigration Department is to be given powers to investigate certain offences more effectively and efficiently under a bill gazetted today (Friday).
The Immigration Service (Amendment) Bill 1996 proposes to equip members of the Immigration Service with the necessary powers to investigate offences relating to registration of births, deaths, and marriages, registration of persons and certain forgery offences under the Crimes Ordinance, a government spokesman said.
"These include the powers to arrest and search suspects, to enter premises and search for suspects, and to apply for a warrant to enter, search for and seize things related to the offences or things of value to investigation," the spokesman said.
At present, investigations of these offences are conducted by the Police as members of the Immigration Service do not have clearly defined powers to do so although they have taken over the work of the Registration of Persons Office and the Birth, Death and Marriage Registries in 1977 and 1979 respectively.
"The powers to be conferred on members of the Immigration Service are in line with existing powers of the Police and other enforcement agencies," the spokesman stressed.
He said another proposal was to extend from 12 hours to 48 hours the time limit for delivering a person arrested by members of the Immigration Service to the officer- in-charge of a police station.
"This is also in line with the requirement imposed on other enforcement agencies," the spokesman said.
He said that by passing the responsibility of investigating these matters from the Police to the Immigration Department, police resources tied up in such work could be redeployed and any duplication of work by the two departments could be obviated.
"Also, as members of the Immigration Service are more familiar with their areas of responsibilities, investigation of these offences by them would be conducted more effectively," he added.
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The Bill is expected to be introduced into the Legislative Council on February
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.