Facts and Statistics

	2019	2020
Forged travel documents detected	572	98
Mainland illegal immigrants apprehended and repatriated	336	60
Illegal workers prosecuted (excluding sex workers)	1 157	615
Employers of illegal workers prosecuted	246	164
No. of prosecution instituted	5 408	4 401

Torture/Non-refoulement Claim Cases
(as at End of June 2021)

^[1] The Court of First Instance of the High Court (CFI) held in December 2008 that the Administration should provide legal assistance to a torture claimant during the screening process and provide suitable training for the decision makers. The Immigration Department (ImmD) then suspended all screening works.

^[2] The Legislative Council passed the Immigration (Amendment) Ordinance 2009 in November 2009, making it an offence for illegal immigrants to take any employment or establish or join in any business. The ImmD implemented the enhanced administrative mechanism in December 2009.

^[3] This includes 93 reviewed cases.

^[4] On commencement of the Unified Screening Mechanism (USM) on 3 March 2014, there were 2 501 outstanding torture claims. Separately, 4 198 persons have lodged non-refoulement claims on applicable grounds (other than torture) (in which 2 962 cases were lodged by rejected or withdrawn torture claimants), making a total of 6 699 non-refoulement claims pending determination on commencement of the USM.

^[5] Due to the special work arrangements during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, only limited publicly-funded legal assistance could be provided to claimants, which delayed the commencement of the screening procedure of some claims.

Between the commencement of the enhanced administrative mechanism (late 2009) and June 2021, determinations have been made in 23 759 torture/non-refoulement claims, among which 272 were substantiated. A breakdown by nationality of the substantiated claimants is as follows:

Nationality	Number of claimants
Yemeni	42
Pakistani	32
Rwandan	25
Somali	19
Sri Lankan	18
Egyptian	16
Bangladeshi	14
Congolese (Democratic Republic of)	13
Cameroonian	12
Burundian	10
Indonesian	9
Afghanistani	8
Jordanian	8
Nepalese	7
Ethiopian	6
Central African Republic	5
Iranian	4
Ugandan	4
Gambian	2
Indian	2
Nigerian	2
Sudanese	2
Togolese	2
Venezuelan	2
Eritrean	1
Filipino	1
Guinean	1
Kenyan	1
Nigerien	1
Syrian	1
Thai	1
Vietnamese	1
Total	272

As at 30 June 2021, there were 1 546 outstanding non-refoulement claims and breakdown on the profiling of the claimants is as follows:

Sex	Number of claimants
Male	602
Female	944
Total	1 546

 

Age	Number of claimants
Under 18	67
18 to 30	468
31 to 40	645
Above 40	366
Total	1 546

 

Nationality	Number of claimants
Vietnamese	464
Indonesian	449
Filipino	158
Indian	125
Pakistani	124
Bangladeshi	100
Thai	49
Nigerian	14
Sri Lankan	12
Others	51
Total	1 546

 

Status in Hong Kong	Percentage
Overstayers	54%
Illegal Immigrants	42%
Others (Including persons refused entry and persons born in Hong Kong with the right of abode in Hong Kong not established)	4%