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| Some of the 30 women removed from HK are led away by Immigration agents |
A total of 55 non-refoulement claimants (or those opposing their being sent back home) who were illegal immigrants and overstayers were repatriated to their home countries from May 29 to May 31, according to the Immigration Department.
A statement released by the Department said the persons removed comprised 25 males and 30 females whose nationalities were not disclosed. Among them were a number who had committed criminal offences and had completed their jail sentences.
Immigration said the repatriation was in line with
its policy of “promptly removing unsubstantiated non-refoulement claimants from
Hong Kong so as to maintain effective immigration control and safeguard the
public interest.”
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| PINDUTIN DITO |
Under the latest removal policy which took effect
from Dec 7, 2022, Immigration is allowed to remove a claimant whose application
for a judicial review has been dismissed by the Court of First Instance.
However, a large number of such unsuccessful
claimants remain in the city because they have filed appeals against the
rejection of their judicial review bids.
Immigration said that depending on circumstances and
needs, it will continue to speed up the removal process and is actively
liaising with governments of major source countries of non-refoulement
claimants, airline companies and other government departments for this purpose.
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| 25 male claimants were among those sent back to their home countries |
During a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Council in November last year, the Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung said that latest figures showed there were around 14, 700 claimants remaining in Hong Kong for different reasons, among which over half (7 755 persons) still had judicial review cases pending before the CFI.
A total of 2,670 claimants were in the process of
being confirmed for repatriation eligibility.
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| TAWAG NA! |
Secretary Tang also said that the expenses incurred in handling non-refoulement claims and related work in 2023-24 is $1.4 billion, and it is estimated that the costs for 2024-25 would be at a similar level.
Since the implementation of the Unified Screening
Mechanism for claimants in 2014, only around 1.3 per cent of the
non-refoulement claims were substantiated, said Tang.
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