ENG-1972 — Page 171

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Immigration and Tourism

Immigration

HONG KONG continued to attract visitors from all over the world, with 7,987,223 travel- lers passing through immigration controls in 1972, representing an increase of 28.33 per cent over the previous year. Of this figure, 2,702,807 travelled by air, 3,835,694 by sea (mainly Macau traffic) and 1,449,242 by land between Hong Kong and China.

A new Immigration Ordinance was enacted during the year. One of the most important aspects of the new legislation is that it conveys the right to land in Hong Kong on persons wholly or partly of Chinese race and resident UK belongers who have been ordinarily resident in Hong Kong on a continuous basis for not less than seven years. Hong Kong belongers (the categories of which have been substantially extended) also have this same right to land.

For the first time, immigration controls have also been extended to cover UK citizens, that is, the holders of UK passports issued in Britain, and persons born, adopted, naturalised or registered as British subjects there. Such persons do not require visas to enter Hong Kong for employment, education, residence, etc, nor re- entry visas, but if they wish to stay for longer than six months they are obliged to apply for an extension of stay.

Local residents are becoming very travel conscious, and this is perhaps a reflec- tion of the increasing prosperity of Hong Kong. This year 34,164 British (Hong Kong) passports were issued, the highest figure ever, representing an increase of 22 per cent over 1971. In addition 59,018 Certificates of Identity and 705,059 Re-entry Permits were issued to stateless residents of Hong Kong. There was also a continuation of the steady upward trend in the demand for Entry Certificates for Britain which was largely attributable to the growing popularity of cheap charter flights to Britain, more group travel, and a large number of students going to Britain for higher educa- tion. This control which the Immigration Department exercises on behalf of the British Home Office, particularly the work relating to appeals, placed a heavy burden on the department. It is proposed to establish a separate section specifically for this work, which will also handle all visa applications for those Commonwealth countries for which the department is the agent in Hong Kong.

The British Consulate in Taipei, Taiwan, closed during the year and arrangements were made in Hong Kong to deal with applications for visas for Hong Kong and the United Kingdom by Taiwan residents. The applications are submitted to the airlines with offices in Taiwan who arrange for them to be delivered to the Immigra- tion Department. When the applications are approved, an entry permit is issued to the airline company involved for delivery to the applicant.