TNAG-1734-FCO40-2447-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 306

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 11 May 1988

Immigration control at Kai Tak Airport

3. MR. CHENG asked: Will Government inform this Council if it is aware that Hong Kong residents have experienced inconvenience in getting through the immigration control counters at the Kai Tak Airport and whether or not it will take measures to ensure that lines designated for residents are truly reserved for them and that their documents can be speedily processed?

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, the Government is aware that some Hong Kong residents have experienced inconvenience in getting through immigration control at the Hong Kong International Airport during peak hours because the lines designated for them are sometimes also used by overseas visitors.

A segregated system achieves its best results if residents and non-residents are processed in separate halls, with separate resources. The immigration facilities at Kai Tak Airport were, however, only designed for what is called open front clearance. The Government, nevertheless, recognises that Hong Kong residents should be cleared through immigration control as speedily and efficiently as possible and has designated certain counters for them. In addition, whenever resources permit, the Immigration Department deploys regulators in the halls to help passengers queue in the right lines.

Although these facilities are important for Hong Kong residents, it is necessary to ensure that visitors are also given courteous and expeditious service. This would certainly not be achieved if visitors were required to queue in long lines while they could see resident counters being relatively under-used. A partial solution could be the allocation of fewer counters for residents, but this would not be in keeping with the service intended for Hong Kong residents. To strike the right balance, and to achieve the best use of his resources, the Director of Immigration has concluded that the counters should be used flexibly, taking into account the traffic situation at the time.

Unfortunately, given the constraints presented by the design and layout of the airport, it is not possible to enforce a rigid segregation of passengers.

Improvements will, however, be introduced in the next few months, including computerisation, additional immigration counters and more immigration staff to cope with the increased workload. It is expected that these measures will go some way to reducing the overall waiting time, and will allow more scope for the Immigration Department to ensure that counters designated for residents are more exclusively used by residents. The department will monitor the effective- ness of these new facilities.

MR. CHENG: Sir, will the Secretary for Security elaborate on the way in which regulators of the Immigration Department identify residents and non-residents in the hall and help them queue in the right lines?

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