ENG-2001 — Page 515

POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION

naturalisation as Chinese nationals, 114 applications for renunciation of Chinese nationality and 69 applications for restoration of Chinese nationality.

Assistance to Hong Kong Residents Outside Hong Kong

The Immigration Department works closely with the Security Bureau, the HKSAR Government Office in Beijing, the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong and the overseas Chinese diplomatic and consular missions in providing assistance to Hong Kong residents who have run into trouble or been involved in accidents or natural disasters outside Hong Kong. The assistance that is normally rendered to such Hong Kong residents includes confirmation of their identities, liaison with overseas governments to seek up-to-date information on their condition, conveyance of information to their family members in Hong Kong, issue of travel documents urgently to facilitate their return to Hong Kong or onward trips. to elsewhere and, if necessary, liaising with their family members in Hong Kong for rendering financial assistance to cover the costs of their return passages.

With effect from January 1, 2001, a Reciprocal Notification Mechanism between Mainland authorities and the HKSAR Government has come into operation. Under the arrangements, the Mainland Notification Unit will notify the Liaison Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force of the imposition of any criminal compulsory measure on suspected offenders who are Hong Kong residents. Notifications will also be made in cases of unnatural deaths of Hong Kong residents in the Mainland. The Immigration Department and the Beijing Office will provide appropriate and necessary assistance to the family members upon their request.

In 2001, the Immigration Department handled 828 requests for assistance from Hong Kong residents outside Hong Kong.

Establishment and Training

The Immigration Department had 4 137 disciplined staff and 1 638 civilian staff at the end of the year, compared with 3 962 and 1 659 respectively in 2000.

The department provides training for new and serving officers. During the year, serving officers received various types of job-related and management training. In addition, 37 were sent for overseas attachment and training.

Vietnamese Refugees and Migrants

Since 1975, Hong Kong had received more than 200 000 people from Vietnam. No Vietnamese asylum seeker had ever been turned away.

Despite its tiny size and steadily growing population, Hong Kong had absorbed some 16 000 Indo-Chinese people since the late 1970s. At the end of 2001, 44 Vietnamese refugees and 110 Vietnamese migrants still remained in the HKSAR. This was after the resettlement of more than 143 000 Vietnamese refugees in other countries, the repatriation of more than 67 000 Vietnamese migrants and the local resettlement of some 1 368 Vietnamese refugees/migrants since February 2000.

With the formal conclusion of the internationally agreed Comprehensive Plan of Action and in view of the changed circumstances in Vietnam, the HKSAR ended the 'Port of First Asylum' policy for Vietnamese with effect from January 9, 1998.

In practice, it means that the special statutory provisions on the screening for refugee status and related review procedures for Vietnamese ceased to have effect on

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