President, in the main reply, it was pointed out, “Persons whose application is found to be fraudulent by the HKSAR Government shall have their residence status invalidated and shall be removed, regardless of their years of residence in Hong Kong.” I would like to ask as there have been many reports about people applying for residence in Hong Kong after engaging in bogus marriage, what measures have the authorities put in place to crack down on such cases of bogus marriage?
SECRETARY FOR SECURITY (in Cantonese): President, we have learned from press reports that the problem of bogus marriage is not only restricted to applicants for OWP, but also people of other nationalities who apply for residence in Hong Kong on grounds of family reunion in accordance with the relevant policy. To look further, all countries have this problem. Concerning the work in this regard, the Immigration Department (ImmD) attaches great importance to it and has set up a special investigation team to conduct in-depth investigation into any suspicious cases reported or discovered by us.
Let me cite some statistics. Between February 2007 and December 2013, the ImmD handled a total of 5 544 cases involving 11 164 persons. After thorough and long-term investigation, the ImmD arrested a total of 7 061 persons and among these persons, it had sufficient evidence to bring prosecution against 1 537. In general, the Court metes out severe punishments to such cases and all those convicted have to serve various imprisonment terms, depending on the nature and severity of the crimes involved. It is not easy for the ImmD to deal with such cases as they require plenty of hard work in gathering evidence, but they have accumulated years of experience and hence have been able to successfully prosecute over 1 000 persons, as I mentioned earlier.
Of course, successful prosecution has been brought against two groups of people, one being Hong Kong residents and the other those who have engaged in bogus marriage. If people coming from a foreign country obtain Hong Kong residence by way of bogus marriage, since their marriage is bogus, their residence status in Hong Kong is obtained by illegal means or fraud. The ImmD will follow up and invalidate their residence status and remove them from Hong Kong. Of course, the person facing removal has the right to appeal and even apply for a judicial review, and we have a set procedure to deal with such cases.