The Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, today (May 19) continued his visit in Yunnan and visited the Foreigners Service and Administration Centre of Ruili City in Dehonga in order to gain a better understanding of the immigration arrangements for foreigners of the Mainland’s law enforcement agencies.
          
     Mr Lai arrived Kunming in the afternoon on May 17 and met with law enforcement agency officials including the Director General of Yunnan Provincial Public Security Department, Mr Ren Jun-hao; the Chief of Yunnan Border Control Bureau, Mr Dong Hai; and the Director of Public Security Department of Yunnan Province, Li Lin, and discussed further co-operation on combating non-ethnic Chinese illegal immigrants (IIs). During the meeting he said that in the past year the provincial law enforcement agencies of Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan, with support from the Ministry of Public Security, worked jointly with the Hong Kong Police and Immigration Department to conduct dedicated operations against human-smuggling activities, with the result that the number of IIs is now in a downward trend. However, the smuggling of Vietnamese IIs to Hong Kong remains serious in comparison to those of other nationalities. About half of the IIs come from Vietnam.
      
     Mr Lai said that with persisting and effective dedicated operations against smuggling activities, syndicates may shift their targets to locations of IIs in Yunnan, including the China-Vietnam and China-Myanmar borders, to conduct human-smuggling activities. Therefore, it is crucial for relevant provinces and regions to continue to work together to combat the smuggling syndicates. Mr Lai expressed his gratitude to the Yunnan authorities for their full support in combating illegal immigration.     
      
     In the past two days, while in Ruili, Dehonga Mr Lai visited the China-Myanmar border, Yinjing Border Control Point, Ruili Border Control Point and Ruili port.     
      
     Mr Lai will proceed to Hekou, Honghe in the evening today to visit the China-Vietnam border and Hekou Border Control Point, where he will attend a forum with law enforcement officers there.        
      
     Mr Lai will then proceed to Beijing on May 21 and meet with officials of the Ministry of Public Security to discuss the achievements of dedicated operations against illegal immigration activities and future deployments. Before his departure, he will also meet with officials of the Narcotics Control Department and the Border Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security to exchange views on matters of mutual concern.
      
     Mr Lai will return to Hong Kong in the evening on May 23 (Tuesday).

Ends/Friday, May 19, 2017
Issued at HKT 19:25

NNNN