Facts and Statistics

	2022	2023
Forged travel documents detected	109	419
Mainland illegal immigrants apprehended and repatriated	787	603
Illegal workers prosecuted (excluding sex workers)	539	943
Employers of illegal workers prosecuted	138	109
No. of prosecution instituted	2 930	4 263

Torture/Non-refoulement Claim Cases
(as at End of March 2024)

^[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non-refoulement claims on applicable grounds (other than torture) (in which 2 962 cases were lodged by rejected or withdrawn torture claimants), making a total of 6 699 non-refoulement claims pending determination on commencement of the USM.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] From 2020 to early 2021, 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 March 2024, determinations have been made in 29 034 torture/non-refoulement claims, among which 330 were substantiated. A breakdown by nationality of the substantiated claimants is as follows:

Nationality	Number of claimants
Pakistani	43
Yemeni	43
Rwandan	25
Egyptian	22
Somali	21
Indonesian	20
Sri Lankan	18
Bangladeshi	17
Congolese (Democratic Republic of)	15
Cameroonian	13
Burundian	12
Afghan	9
Zimbabwean	9
Jordanian	8
Nepalese	7
Ethiopian	6
Central African	5
Indian	5
Iranian	4
Ugandan	4
Gambian	2
Kenyan	2
Nigerian	2
Sudanese	2
Togolese	2
Ukrainian	2
Venezuelan	2
Belarusian	1
Colombian	1
Eritrean	1
Filipino	1
Guinean	1
Moroccan	1
Nigerien	1
Syrian	1
Thai	1
Vietnamese	1
Total	330

As at 31 March 2024, there were 1 074 outstanding non-refoulement claims and breakdown on the profiling of the claimants is as follows:

Sex	Number of claimants
Male	837
Female	237
Total	1 074

 

Age	Number of claimants
Under 18	52
18 to 30	382
31 to 40	381
Above 40	259
Total	1 074

 

Nationality	Number of claimants
Bangladeshi	279
Indian	216
Pakistani	188
Indonesian	176
Vietnamese	104
Filipino	41
Thai	16
Nigerian	13
Togolese	7
Others	34
Total	1 074

 

Status in Hong Kong	Percentage
Overstayers	43%
Illegal Immigrants	52%
Others (Including persons refused entry and persons born in Hong Kong with the right of abode in Hong Kong not established)	5%