21 Aug 2015
The Immigration Department (ImmD) refused entry to Hong Kong for five Indian males arriving in two flights at Hong Kong International Airport yesterday (August 20). Three of them were coming from Delhi, India. The other two arrived from Bangkok, Thailand. All these passengers lodged claims for non-refoulement as soon as they were refused permission to land.
Three Indian passengers arriving from Delhi claimed to be friends. According to the records of ImmD, they had been refused entry to Hong Kong on August 13 and were repatriated to Delhi on the same day. These three Indian passengers were again refused permission to land as they failed to meet the normal immigration requirements yesterday after immigration examination. While waiting for removal, the legal representative of these three passengers lodged claims for non-refoulement on their behalf.
The other two Indian passengers arrived from Bangkok and claimed to be friends. After immigration examination, they were refused permission to land as they both failed to meet the normal immigration requirements. The same legal representative lodged claims for non-refoulement on behalf of these two Indian passengers while they were waiting for removal.
All these non-refoulement claims are being processed. ImmD will conduct further investigation on whether or not there is any person who intentionally arranged for these passengers to lodge claims for non-refoulement in Hong Kong.
A rising trend has been observed in which claimants have lodged claims for non-refoulement upon arrival in Hong Kong.
There were 150 cases referred from control points (monthly average: 12.5 cases) for the period from March 3, 2013, to March 2, 2014. From the commencement of the unified screening mechanism on March 3, 2014, to the end of 2014, there were about 200 non-refoulement claim cases referred from control points (monthly average: 20 cases). In 2015, as at the end of July, the number of non-refoulement claims referred from control points was 204 cases (monthly average: 29.1 cases), which displayed a rising trend of lodging claims at control points.