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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, to a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah on offences involving foreign domestic helpers in the Legislative Council today (January 31):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) prosecuted and convicted in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by the category of crimes involved and how they were uncovered (e.g. from reports by employers), as well as the maximum and minimum penalties imposed on the convicts by the Court;
(b) as employers are required to provide air tickets for FDHs to return to their places of origin upon expiry or termination of their employment contracts, whether the authorities have reviewed if this requirement has affected the employers' decision on whether or not to report their FDHs to the authorities for crimes allegedly committed by them; and
(c) whether it will stipulate that applications for taking up of employment in Hong Kong as domestic helpers from abroad shall be accompanied by a certificate of no criminal conviction from the FDHs' places of origin?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) According to information of the Police and the Immigration Department (ImmD), the number of prosecutions for offences involving foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) over the past three years, broken down by the category of crime, is as follows:
Category of crime 2004 2005 2006
----------------- ---- ---- ----
Overstaying 291 186 308
Miscellaneous theft 245 307 322
Shop theft 140 130 136
Illegal working 110 119 83
Wounding and 8 8 7
aggravated assault
Others 58 112 78
Total number of 852 862 934
offences that were
prosecuted
The number of convictions for offences involving FDHs for the same period is as follows:
Category of crime 2004 2005 2006
----------------- ---- ---- ----
Overstaying 283 188 304
Miscellaneous theft 235 277 324
Shop theft 128 122 137
Illegal working 102 114 79
Wounding and 2 3 1
aggravated assault
Others 49 95 85
Total number of 799 799 930
convicted offences
Note: The figures for 2006 are provisional ones, and the same person may be involved in more than one offence at the same time.
The penalty imposed on the convicted persons varied from a fine of $100 to an imprisonment of three years and six months.
The Administration has not kept separate statistics on how the cases were uncovered. In general, such cases are uncovered through the following channels:
* reported by the public or the employer concerned;
* intercepted at various control points of the ImmD; or
* detected during operations against illegal workers or routine inspections.
(b) As stipulated in Clause 7(a) of the standard employment contract for FDHs, the employer shall provide the FDH with free return passage to his/her place of origin on termination or expiry of contract. In addition, the employer, as the sponsor, has to undertake in the visa application of the FDH that he/she will be responsible for sending the FDH back to the FDH's place of origin if, at the expiry of stay granted by the Director of Immigration, the FDH fails to leave Hong Kong.
The provision is to ensure the FDH's smooth return to his/her place of origin and to prevent the FDH from overstaying in Hong Kong due to insufficient fund for his/her home passage. The provision should have no direct relationship with employers' decision on whether or not to report their FDHs for crimes.
(c) Like other applications for visa to take up employment in Hong Kong, FDHs are not required to provide a certificate of no criminal conviction from their places of origin when they apply to take up employment in Hong Kong.
If an FDH is convicted for committing a crime in Hong Kong, the ImmD will keep a record of his/her conviction so that it would be taken into account when considering his/her application for employment visa or extension of his/her limit of stay in future.
Ends/Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:18
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