The department takes an active role in combating illegal migration and human smuggling and contributes to controlling and preventing the spread of illegal migration as well as preventing Hong Kong from being used as a springboard for human smuggling activities. The Special Investigation Section is specialised in the investigation of organised immigration offences, including human smuggling activities, occurring in or involving Hong Kong. It works closely with other law enforcement agencies in Hong Kong, the Mainland and overseas to combat organised human smuggling activities.

Smuggling via the Mainland was one of the main ways of arrival of non-refoulement claimants to Hong Kong. Among them, the majority originated from countries not enjoying visa-free access to Hong Kong, including Vietnam, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The department is very concerned about the situation, and has been maintaining close liaison and intelligence exchange with the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) and the Mainland authorities for joint efforts in combating these illicit activities at source. The Special Investigation Section has conducted special operations with the Mainland and local law enforcement agencies to make sustained efforts to combat illegal immigration activities of non-ethnic Chinese. The effectiveness of the operations has been remarkable. The number of non-ethnic Chinese illegal immigrants (NECIIs) intercepted has been declining significantly since the later half of 2016. In 2021, a total of 850 NECIIs (a monthly average of 71) were intercepted, a drop of 78 per cent compared with the peak of 3,819 NECIIs (a monthly average of 318) intercepted in 2015. During the same period, the department conducted 10 joint operations with Mainland law enforcement agencies and the HKPF and smashed a number of cross-boundary crime syndicates, resulting in the arrest of 506 involved persons, including 164 core members of smuggling syndicates.

In 2021, the number of Mainland illegal immigrants intercepted was 1,376.

To deter the smuggling of Mainland illegal immigrants into Hong Kong, the department and the HKPF, jointly with the Exit and Entry Administration Bureau of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department and the Guangdong Coast Guard, conducted an operation codenamed 'Movecloud' in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province respectively in May 2021, smashing a syndicate active on the Guangdong-Hong Kong border that specialised in arranging for Mainlanders to seek illegal entry into Hong Kong, and a total of 106 persons were arrested, including eight local core members.

The Anti-Illegal Migration Agency (AIM) was formed to prevent Hong Kong from being used as a springboard for human smuggling activities. Its main charter includes investigations of cases of forgery, human smuggling activities and illegal migration intercepted at Hong Kong International Airport and other control points, focused investigations of forgery syndicates involved in the abuse of HKSAR passports, and collection and analysis of the latest modus operandi of forgery syndicates and users.

AIM maintains close liaison with the local, Mainland and overseas authorities and representatives of foreign counterparts for the exchange of relevant intelligence and trends. The Operational Research Section closely monitors the latest trends in illegal migration and the modus operandi adopted by human smuggling syndicates. Frontline officers will be instantly alerted whenever new trends in the forgery of travel documents and in illegal migration are observed.

In 2021, AIM conducted 27,235 operations and spot-checked 18,280 passengers. During an operation, six Mainlanders were arrested on suspicion of using counterfeit Mexican permanent resident identity cards or counterfeit Mexican travel visas. Among the six arrestees, three were convicted of using a false instrument and sentenced to 8 to 11 months' imprisonment, whereas the other three were convicted of conspiracy to obtain services by deception and each sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment.

Immigration officers have all along been conducting screening and making identification of vulnerable persons who are arrested or who put themselves forward to the authorities under the TIP victim screening mechanism, with a view to ascertaining whether they are TIP victims.

To implement the 'Action Plan to Tackle Trafficking in Persons and to Enhance Protection of Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong', the Foreign Domestic Helpers Special Investigation Section (FIS) was set up with the key tasks of conducting initial screening before vetting visa applications from foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) so as to facilitate early identification of potential TIP victims and cases of exploitation of FDHs, and conducting investigations where necessary.

In 2021, the department conducted a total of 3,082 initial screenings under the TIP victim screening mechanism. Among them, 1,702 were conducted by FIS in respect of FDH visa applicants.

To heighten staff's TIP awareness, the department has included the topic of TIP in the induction training for all officers. In addition, relevant enforcement officers will attend workshops on tackling human trafficking co-organised by the HKSAR government and overseas law enforcement agencies.

As a member of the Inter-departmental Joint Investigation Team, the department will continue to discuss the latest TIP trends and exchange intelligence with other members, including the HKPF, the Customs and Excise Department and the Labour Department, and conduct joint investigations/operations against TIP activities.

To combat offences relating to parallel trading activities, the department has stepped up enforcement action by mounting a series of anti-illegal worker operations codenamed 'Windsand'. As at the end of 2021, a total of 846 operations were conducted with the apprehension of 3,625 Mainland visitors for breaching their conditions of stay by suspected involvement in parallel goods trading, and 20 local employers suspected of employing illegal workers. Among them, 233 Mainland visitors were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment ranging from four weeks to three months. According to the existing mechanism, the department will pass the particulars of those Mainland visitors convicted of illegal employment in Hong Kong to the Mainland authorities for cancellation of their exit endorsements and they are prohibited from visiting Hong Kong for two years. For persons suspected of being involved in parallel goods trading but are not prosecuted, their future arrival will be closely scrutinised. They will be refused entry and repatriated to the Mainland immediately if their purposes of visit are dubious.

The department takes vigorous enforcement action against illegal employment.

In 2021, the department continued to maintain high vigilance against illegal workers and actively took tough and effective enforcement action against unlawful employment of illegal immigrants, visitors, FDHs and imported workers subject to specific employment conditions so as to protect the local labour market. Measures taken included publicising related government policies and regulations, and conduting frequent surprise checks on factories, restaurants, laundry factories, shops, markets, foot reflexology centres, residential and commercial premises under renovation, construction sites, refuse collection points, and waste materials recycling factories, container depots and warehouses situated in the border and remote areas in the New Territories. In 2021, 1,476 illegal workers, including 373 persons engaged in sex work, were arrested. Most of the illegal workers were prosecuted and fined or imprisoned before repatriation to their places of domicile. Moreover, the Immigration (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 took effect on 1 August 2021. According to the amended section 38AA, in addition to illegal immigrants and persons subject to removal orders or deportation orders, overstayers or persons who were refused permission to land are also prohibited from taking any employment, whether paid or unpaid, or from establishing or joining in any business. From the commencement of section 38AA in November 2009 till the end of 2021, 2,941 persons were arrested on suspicion of breaching the ordinance.

The Immigration Task Force conducts enforcement operations against immigration offenders.

In order to curb the prevailing trend of unlawful employment and safeguard job opportunities for the local workforce, the Immigration Task Force conducted a number of special operations codenamed 'Champion', 'Contribute', 'Fastrack', 'Flabbergast', 'Greenlane', 'Powerplayer', 'Rally', 'Sahara' and 'Twilight' against illegal workers in various businesses. In 2021, the task force conducted 14,277 enforcement operations, including 357 large-scale joint operations with other government departments. A total of 1,383 immigration offenders were arrested.

Employers of illegal workers were also subject to arrest. In 2021, 604 employers were arrested for employing illegal workers. As a deterrent measure, the Court of Appeal (CA) laid down a sentencing guideline reaffirming that employing a person not lawfully employable is a serious offence and the employer of an illegal worker should be given an immediate custodial sentence even for the first offence. The CA also stated that the presence of other aggravating factors, such as exploitation of illegal workers, employment of multiple illegal workers or repeated offences, would in most cases substantially increase the sentence. Furthermore, relevant penalties have been increased under the Immigration (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, which took effect from 1 August 2021.The maximum penalty for being the employer of a person who is not lawfully employable, and if the employee is a prohibited employee, has been significantly increased from a fine of $350,000 and three years' imprisonment to a fine of $500,000 and 10 years' imprisonment to reflect the gravity of the offence. The director, manager, secretary, partner, etc of the company concerned may also be subject to criminal liability.

The department received reports that some FDHs were suspected of breaching their conditions of stay by providing unlicensed dental services on Sundays and holidays in rented guesthouse rooms. The Outside Investigation Section immediately launched an investigation. After in-depth investigation and intelligence analysis, investigators identified four target suspects and mounted a series of operations in April 2021. Four Indonesian FDHs were arrested, and relevant exhibits, including some business cards and books of account, were seized. The four arrested FDHs were charged with breaching their conditions of stay by engaging in unregistered dentistry. Two of them were also charged with aiding and abetting the practising of dentistry by an unregistered person. After court proceedings, all of them were convicted of the charges and were given sentences ranging from two to four months' imprisonment.

A press conference was held after the arrest of four foreign domestic helpers for breaching of their conditions of stay by practising dentistry without registration.

When looking into a number of applications for employment visas for FDHs, the Outside Investigation Section discovered that an employment agent for FDHs had arranged for foreigners to use false contracts to apply for employment visas to stay in Hong Kong as domestic helpers and seek illegal employment afterwards. In July 2018, the department mounted a series of operations. Twenty-four persons, including the employment agent and 23 foreigners who had applied for employment visas by using false contracts, were apprehended. In September 2021, the agent was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment, while the other 23 arrestees were convicted of, among others, making false representation to an immigration officer and were sentenced to up to nine months' imprisonment.

Moreover, the department produced an Announcement in the Public Interest (API) entitled 'Don't Hire Illegal Workers' to remind employers that employing persons who are not lawfully employable is a serious criminal offence liable to immediate imprisonment. The API has been broadcast on television and uploaded to the department's YouTube channel.

The Immigration Department has a promotional vehicle to facilitate the distribution of the 'Don't Employ Illegal Workers' leaflets to merchants.

The department publicises the legal implications of unlawful hiring and illegal employment through press conferences and promotional leaflets.

The department encourages members of the public to report immigration offences such as overstaying or employment of illegal workers by mail (address: 5/F, Skyline Tower, 39 Wang Kwong Road, Kowloon Bay, Kowloon), by calling the department's 24-hour hotline (2824 1551), by fax (2824 1166), by e-mail (anti_crime@immd.gov.hk) or by online reporting (www.gov.hk/orio). The department will continue to combat unlawful employment through various channels and appeals to members of the public not to employ illegal workers.

The department is highly concerned about the use of forged travel documents, either for illegal migration, crimes or terrorism. Such illicit activities pose threat to immigration control and the security of the countries concerned and undermine the probity of the passports being forged. As syndicated forgery activity is a global problem, the department works closely with the local, Mainland and overseas law enforcement agencies to conduct covert investigations into cases of forged documents. Resolute actions are taken to detect the use of forged travel documents by travellers and illegal migrants in transit through Hong Kong to other countries. In 2021, the department conducted 27,235 anti-forgery operations. The number of forged documents detected was 56, representing a decrease of 42.9 per cent as compared to 98 in 2020.

The Operational Research Section is responsible for collecting, analysing and disseminating information relating to matters of interest to the department. It keeps track of the modus operandi of human smuggling and the trends in the use of forged travel documents. The section also pays attention to the latest travel documents, identification documents and visas issued by various countries, and provide related information for frontline staff's reference on a regular basis.

For more accurate detection of forged documents, the department uses sophisticated equipment to assist in investigations. Such equipment includes the Electronic Documentation of Information System on Networks (EDISON), which is a computerised system keeping a large collection of digitised colour images of genuine travel document specimens. The department is also equipped with Video Spectral Comparators, which are particularly useful in the immediate detection of forged and unlawfully altered documents.

The department also makes use of compact hand-held forensic devices and forged document detectors to facilitate quick examination of doubtful documents on the spot by frontline officers. Its Face Recognition System (FACES) can also enhance the detection of cases of multiple identities effectively.

Since its issue, the Hong Kong smart identity card has become a target of forgery syndicates. In 2021, a total of 13 forged Hong Kong smart identity cards were seized during various operations conducted by the department. To tackle the problem, the department will continue to step up its operations, intelligence collation and information exchange with relevant parties.

The department conducted an enforcement operation codenamed 'Pathcatcher' since December 2019 and successfully neutralised a forgery-cum-illegal worker syndicate that specialised in arranging for Mainlanders to seek illegal employment in Hong Kong and providing them with forged Hong Kong Identity Cards (HKICs). So far, a total of 27 persons, including 8 Hong Kong residents and 19 Mainland residents had been arrested, and 13 forged HKICs had been seized. Three of the arrested Mainland residents were core members of the syndicate. Among them, two were convicted in October 2020 of conspiracy to transfer forged HKICs, possessing forged HKICs and breach of condition of stay and each sentenced to 32 months' imprisonment, whereas the remaining core member was convicted of four counts of conspiracy to make false instruments and sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment at the District Court in May 2021. That syndicate member had been sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment at the Magistrates' Courts earlier upon conviction of possessing forged HKICs, possessing a false instrument and breaching her condition of stay, while the other 18 convicted persons of the case were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from 1 week to 15 months.

In an enforcement operation codenamed 'Pathcatcher', the department successfully neutralised a forgery-cum-illegal worker syndicate that specialised in arranging for Mainlanders to seek illegal employment in Hong Kong and providing them with forged Hong Kong Identity Cards.

According to the sentencing guideline handed down by CA, for an offence of possession of a forged/other person's identity card, even when the offender's presence in Hong Kong is legal, the sentence should be 12 months' imprisonment after a guilty plea. If the forged/other person's identity card had been presented/used to conceal one's status, so as to seek unlawful employment or to further one's illegal stay in Hong Kong, the sentence should be 15 months' imprisonment after a guilty plea.

The Operational Research Section conducts regular workshops on identification of forged travel documents and forged Hong Kong smart identity cards for our in-service officers, and local and overseas enforcement agencies. Moreover, talks on security features of Hong Kong smart identity cards and techniques for identifying forged Hong Kong smart identity cards were delivered to personnel of other government departments, financial institutions and the legal sector who were regularly involved in the handling of identification documents. To reduce the flow of people and social contact in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the workshops and talks were held by video conferencing.

The section also maintains an Enforcement Exhibition Gallery, which highlights the diversity of work and various achievements of the Enforcement Division through the display of photographs, reports of enforcement action, seized exhibits and various kinds of enforcement equipment. Moreover, the gallery stores over 37,900 forgery items unearthed by the department. These items include forged documents such as passports, identity cards, certificates and implements fit for forgery such as stamps and dies. Specimens are also displayed for training and exhibition purposes.

The department is dedicated to combating immigration-related cyber crimes. With the advancement of information technology, lawbreakers have switched to various online social media platforms or instant messaging applications to organise illegal activities and entice members of the public to commit serious offences such as illegal employment, contracting bogus marriage and HKSAR passport trading. In order to step up enforcement action and prevention efforts against cyber crimes, the department established the Cybercrime and Forensics Investigation Group (CFIG) in 2021 to strengthen the ability of case investigation and evidence collection. CFIG members will make use of different digital forensic tools to carry out professional digital forensic examinations on electronic exhibits such as computers and smartphones seized during investigations, as well as to process and analyse digital data for the purpose of tendering them as evidence in court.

Our digital forensic examiner is conducting digital forensic examination on a smartphone seized during investigation.

The department has grave concerns about non-Hong Kong residents coming for residence in Hong Kong by means of bogus marriages. These people contracted bogus marriages with Hong Kong residents in order to gain entry into Hong Kong and eventually for settlement.

To combat bogus marriage cases, the Marriage Registries of our department have stepped up checking on suspected cases, while the Investigation Sub-division has also initiated investigations into suspected cases. With these measures in place, a number of suspected cases were swiftly detected and the persons involved were convicted of relevant offences.

Our special task force has been aware that some criminal syndicates have continually published messages via newspapers, instant messaging software and social networking mobile applications to induce young people to engage in bogus marriages through promising huge remuneration. In recent years, the department smashed five cross-boundary syndicates in a series of operations against bogus marriages codenamed 'Flashspear', 'Snare' and 'Tracker'.

In 2021, a total of 43 persons were convicted of offences relating to bogus marriages and sentenced to jail terms ranging from 8 to 20 months.

For persons who have obtained their residence in Hong Kong by fraudulent means, their HKICs and residence status will be invalidated according to the laws of Hong Kong. They will also be subject to removal to their places of origin.

To remind members of the public, including young people, of the serious consequences of participating in bogus marriages, the department from time to time disseminates information on crackdowns on bogus marriage syndicates and intermediaries as well as the arrest of persons engaging in bogus marriages through various channels such as press releases and media interviews. In addition, the department has also produced a short video to remind the public against falling into the trap of bogus marriages, which has been uploaded to the department's YouTube channel. The department will continue to deliver such messages through various effective means so as to remind members of the public not to participate in illegal activities such as bogus marriages.

In the fight against illegal migration, exchange of information and intelligence on global human smuggling activities and forgery trends is of utmost importance. The department has successfully established an effective communication network and a good working relationship with foreign and Mainland counterparts, thereby facilitating the exchange of intelligence and proactive action against illegal migration and terrorist activities. Useful intelligence that may help detecting, disrupting or suppressing illegal migration and terrorist activities will be promptly disseminated through the established mechanism.

The CIC is an immigration detention facility for detaining immigration offenders (18 years old or above) who are awaiting repatriation/removal/deportation under the Immigration Ordinance or the final determination of their non-refoulement claims. In 2021, there were 3,066 admissions to the CIC. Among them, 1,667 were male and 1,399 were female.

An emergency response team has been established in the CIC to deal with the emergencies.

To ensure that the personnel stationed at the CIC are sufficiently capable of handing the daily operations of the CIC and responding to emergencies, the ImmD regularly provides them with various kinds of training, including fire drills, simulation and scenario training, resistence control, escort skills, the use of arms and relevant anti-riot equipment, etc. Furthermore, the Immigration (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, which took effect on 1 August 2021, also amended the Weapons Ordinance (Cap. 217) and the Firearms and Ammunition Ordinance (Cap. 238) to enable members of the Immigration Service to use and possess arms, ammunition and weapons.

Following the implementation of the amended ordinance, the department has more flexibility in staff deployment and capacity to conduct staff training on its own, thereby enhancing its capacity in handling emergencies and taking enforcement action at the CIC.

The MTKDC, which runs round the clock, is an immigration facility for short-term detention of detainees pending inquiry, prosecution, court hearings or transfer to other detention facilities. In 2021, there were 3,783 admissions to the MTKDC. Among them, 1,886 were male and 1,897 were female.