1993 — Page 6

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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

and prosecution regardless of citizenship, nationality, place of origin, or country of residence. Enforcement priorities are basically determined by the seriousness of the hawker condition and the environmental nuisances caused, especially the extent of obstruction caused to vehicular and pedestrian traffic, rather than on the race or nationality of the offenders. Although foreigners who resort to illegal hawking are often more noticeable, they do not per se create more serious obstruction or other environmental problems than local hawkers. The estimated number of unlicensed foreign hawkers is 110 and the commodities they sell are mainly souvenirs and other dry goods items such as watches, trinkets, etc. Thus, in comparison with the total illegal hawker population, the scale of their activity is relatively small although they do create problems at a number of particular locations such as Statue Square in Central District, streets near Daimaru in Causeway Bay and in and around Nathan Road in Yau Tsim District. Nevertheless, they are equally subject to law enforcement action whenever and wherever they are detected by Department GDT squads.

To combat unlicensed foreign hawkers, the Department has made special arrangements and deployed additional GDT squads on Sundays and Public Holidays to patrol in areas where unlicensed foreign hawkers usually conglomerate, for example, Statue Square in Central. Apart from that, a number of signs prohibiting hawking are displayed in some of these areas and nearby leisure grounds. In some cases, these signs are in foreign languages such as Tagalog.

With a view to tackling this problem as effectively as possible, the Department has been maintaining a close liaison with the Immigration Department. The names of foreign visitors convicted of illegal hawking are regularly referred to this Department for information and consideration of appropriate parallel action on their part, with their particular attention being drawn to repeated offenders. The Immigration Department has stated publicly that it does give warnings to foreign offenders and is prepared to consider refusal of further application for entry or extension of stay in cases of repeated offences. However, because of privacy and confidentiality of personal particulars, it is not the Immigration Department's policy to disclose details on this aspect.

As to any particular difficulties in dealing with foreign hawkers, GDT staff may face some problems because these hawkers are non-Chinese or non-English speaking or simply pose as such. However, experience indicates that foreign hawkers invariably speak at least some simple English or Cantonese since, otherwise, it would be impossible for them to engage in this illegal activity. In any event, irrespective of whether there is any genuine language gap, a foreign hawker will be dealt with in the same way as any local illegal hawker by being brought to a police station and charged under the normal arrest procedures.

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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MS. ANNA TANG KING-YUNG (in Cantonese):--I would like to ask a follow-up question. In the second paragraph of his reply, Mr. Ip says in 1991 and 1992 altogether 303 summons were taken out against foreigners and 167 were successfully taken out against these foreigners. I wonder why only 167 were successful?

MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese):-Yes, let me answer this question. There are actually many reasons. First, these offenders may have moved to another address before they receive such summons or they may have left Hong Kong. Some of these offenders may also have provided false information or false address to our enforcers, that is why only 167 summons were successfully taken out.

MR. WONG SIU-YEE (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I have a follow-up question. In paragraph 5, the Immigration Department has stated publicly that it does give warnings to foreign offenders and is prepared to do something. This problem has been existing for a long time, why is that the Immigration Department is still considering taking some actions? It seems that the Immigration Department has not taken any positive action. I wonder if the USD will liaise more closely with the Immigration Department to make sure that they do the things that they should do.

MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese):-Let me answer Mr. Wong's question. Actually, in my reply, I have already stated clearly that we have already sent to the Immigration Department a list of these offenders. As for how the Immigration Department handles these people, I think it is within the ambit of the Immigration Department, so I do not think I can answer Mr. Wong's question regarding this aspect. I understand that the spokesman of the Immigration Department has stated once that they will handle such cases according to the nature and seriousness of the offences before they can decide what sort of punishment they are going to impose. So if you want to know exactly what the Immigration Department is going to do, perhaps you have to write to the Immigration Department.

MR. DANIEL WONG KWOK-TUNG (in English):--Mr. Chairman, I have two supplementary questions.

According to the figures given by the reply of our Chairman of the Markets and Street Traders Select Committee, it appears that in 1991 and 1992 there were 587 arrests, but there are only 520 being convicted, so the non-conviction rate is about 10%. It is quite strange when compared to the conviction rate in the local hawkers. The conviction rate is almost 100%. This figure is also quite significant as was mentioned by Anna Tang that the summons which are successfully taken out is only 167 compared to 303. I cannot help myself to question if our GD team is well-trained to handle this kind of foreign hawkers. Are they so capable to handle this kind of problem? It is because I did receive some complaints from the local hawkers in Yau Tsim and Mongkok. They said the foreign hawkers did receive...

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