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The Deputy Director of Immigration, Mr Chow Kwok-chuen, today (May 25) praised frontline officers as the true heroes of the department's success in serving the community.
He was speaking at the passing-out parade for 176 staff - 93 Immigration Officers and 83 Immigration Assistants. They had completed their months-long induction training at the Immigration Services Institute of Training and Development.
Mr Chow said that when he joined the service in 1970, the Immigration Department was responsible only for controlling the movement of people, issuing travel documents and visas, and fighting immigration-related crimes. The scope of work has since been expanded. Functions such as issue of identity cards; registration of births, deaths and marriages; assisting residents in distress outside Hong Kong; handling matters relating to Chinese nationality on behalf of the Central People's Government are all on the department's schedule.
"In maintaining law and order, our role of combating illegal employment, irregular migration and forgery of documents is getting larger by the day. Few, if any, immigration authorities in the world shoulder such a wide spectrum of responsibility."
With the expanded scope of work, the challenges the department face are as numerous as they are tough. Mr Chow said the workload had increased against a backdrop of slow growth in manpower. The number of people examined at the control points doubled from 90 million in 1995 to 190 million in 2005. Cross-boundary vehicular traffic also rocketed from 8 million in 1995 to over 14 million in 2005. The establishment, however, went up by a mere 5% in the same period.
While innovative application of modern technologies played a significant role in enhancing productivity, Mr Chow said it was the staff that could have the largest impact on the success or failure of an organisation.
"Serving as members of the Immigration Service is a great responsibility," he told the officers on parade. "You have to perform your duties with integrity, dedication and professionalism, and support the Government that operates in strict accordance with the law."
Mr Chow wished all officers on parade success in the challenges ahead and awarded "Best recruit" shields to 10 of the officers.
Ends/Thursday, May 25, 2006
Issued at HKT 17:58
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