considered administratively by the Secretary for Security or his Deputy. Those whom it was finally decided to remove would be moved from the Detention Centre by road and returned to China via Man Kam To Bridge, in the same way as those caught on first arrival,
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Immigration Department, in addition to setting up and manning the Specia Registration Office during the 72 hours of grace, would subse- quently paticipate in the enforcement measures in co-operation with the Police. Central Reporting Section would be set up within the Investigation Division of the Department to collate reports of persons not carrying identity cards from all sources, including Government Departments (who would be instructed to report all such cases), Labour Inspectors (in the course of their normal inspections) and other informants. Immigration Department, assisted by the Police as necessary, would take action to follow up these reports.
Employment
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The announcement on Friday should alert all employers to their new obligations. The 3-day grace period, including a Monday, would enable them to remind those of their employees who had not registered to do so at Victoria Barracks before midnight on Monday. After the date set, employers should cease to take on any persors unable to produce identity documents. Employers would then be allowed another 10 days in which to check and record the identity documents of all their existing employees. Those unable to produce such documents would be liable to be dismissed with no liability on the employer to pay compensation. After this period, any employer found to be employing persons without identity documents would be liable to prosecution. Enforcement would be carried out by the Labour Inspectors during the course of their normal inspection duties and Police and Immigration would follow up at establishments where there was suspicion of widespread disregard of the law and in those places of work not subject to visits by the Labour Inspectorate.
Timing
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Once Members have advised on the draft legislation, any future Friday at least ten days ahead (to give time for final preparations) could be set as the date for the legislation to be presented to the Legislative Council and for the operation as a whole to begin. In addition, it would be necessary to fix the dates on which the various parts of legislation were to be brought into operation.
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However, inplementation of the plan would entail diverting a substantial number of experienced Immigration Officers from other
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