Police will implement special traffic arrangements in various districts during Ching Ming Festival period to facilitate grave sweepers, and to ensure smooth vehicular traffic movements and pedestrian safety. Hong Kong Island… read more
The Water Supplies Department (WSD) today (March 14) was awarded the Most Outstanding Award at the 2024 Global Most Innovative Knowledge Enterprise (MIKE) Award Ceremony held in Bangkok, Thailand. Alongside the earlier recognition of the Hong Kong MIKE Award 2024 by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the WSD’s outstanding performance in knowledge management and innovation has garnered significant acclaim both locally and internationally.
The Director of Water Supplies, Mr Roger Wong, attended the ceremony to receive the award. He expressed gratitude to colleagues for their dedication and efforts in implementing knowledge management and promoting the digitisation of water supply services to serve the public with excellent quality water supply services. He remarked that this year marks an important milestone as it is the 60th anniversary of Dongjiang Water Supply to Hong Kong, making the receipt of this international accolade particularly meaningful. During the ceremony, Mr Wong also shared insights on innovation and knowledge management with experts across the world.
In the winners’ report, the judging panel highly praised the WSD for its outstanding performance, particularly noting management’s commitment to establishing the Digital Water Office and actively participating in knowledge management initiatives, fully recognising the WSD’s efforts in promoting innovation and knowledge management. The panel also specifically commended the WSD for its initiatives in exploring the application of artificial intelligence, developing the Asset Management Information System (AMIS), and implementing Building Information Modelling (BIM).
Last year, the WSD established the Digital Water Office, merging the divisions responsible for efficiency enhancement, digital modelling, and information systems within the department. The Office is dedicated to driving the digitalisation of water supply services. The Office has formulated a three-phase plan to optimise existing waterworks infrastructure and customer services, providing higher quality and more environmentally friendly water supply services.
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The Global MIKE Award is the highest accolade in the field of knowledge management, organised by the Institute of Knowledge and Innovation, Southeast Asia (IKI-SEA) at Bangkok University. The independent judging panel consists of experienced industry experts and corporate management personnel. This year, a total of 19 organisations received this honor, with three organisations, including the WSD, receiving the Most Outstanding Award. The Global MIKE Award is the most prestigious of its kind in which entries were assessed by 36 international judges through rigorous adjudication. Since 2021, the WSD has consecutively won the Global MIKE Award and the Hong Kong MIKE Award, and last year achieved the Hong Kong Top Winner for the first time.
The Immigration Department (ImmD) mounted a series of territory-wide anti-illegal worker operations codenamed “Contribute”, “Fastrack” and “Twilight”, and a joint operation with the Hong Kong Police Force codenamed “Windsand”, for four consecutive days from March 10 to yesterday (March 13). A total of eight suspected illegal workers and one suspected employer were arrested.
During the anti-illegal worker operations, ImmD Task Force officers raided 28 target locations including massage parlours, premises under renovation and restaurants. Eight suspected illegal workers and one suspected employer were arrested. The arrested suspected illegal workers comprised six men and two women, aged 21 to 43. One man, aged 48, was suspected of employing the illegal worker and was also arrested.
An ImmD spokesman said, “Any person who contravenes a condition of stay in force in respect of him or her shall be guilty of an offence. Also, visitors are not allowed to take employment in Hong Kong, whether paid or unpaid, without the permission of the Director of Immigration. Offenders are liable to prosecution and upon conviction face a maximum fine of $50,000 and up to two years’ imprisonment. Aiders and abettors are also liable to prosecution and penalties.”
The spokesman warned, “As stipulated in section 38AA of the Immigration Ordinance, an illegal immigrant, a person who is the subject of a removal order or a deportation order, an overstayer or a person who was refused permission to land is prohibited from taking any employment, whether paid or unpaid, or establishing or joining in any business. Offenders are liable upon conviction to a maximum fine of $50,000 and up to three years’ imprisonment. As stipulated in section 20(1)(a) of the Immigration Ordinance, the Chief Executive may make a deportation order against an immigrant, prohibiting the immigrant from being in Hong Kong at any time thereafter if the immigrant has been found guilty in Hong Kong of an offence punishable by imprisonment for not less than two years.”
The spokesman reiterated that it is a serious offence to employ people who are not lawfully employable. Under the Immigration Ordinance, the maximum penalty for an employer employing a person who is not lawfully employable, i.e. an illegal immigrant, a person who is the subject of a removal order or a deportation order, an overstayer or a person who was refused permission to land, 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 such offences. The director, manager, secretary, partner, etc, of the company concerned may also bear criminal liability. The High Court has laid down sentencing guidelines that the employer of an illegal worker should be given an immediate custodial sentence.
According to the court sentencing, employers must take all practicable steps to determine whether a person is lawfully employable prior to employment. Apart from inspecting a prospective employee’s identity card, the employer has the explicit duty to make enquiries regarding the person and ensure that the answers would not cast any reasonable doubt concerning the lawful employability of the person. The court will not accept failure to do so as a defence in proceedings. It is also an offence if an employer fails to inspect the job seeker’s valid travel document if the job seeker does not have a Hong Kong permanent identity card. Offenders are liable upon conviction to a maximum fine of $150,000 and to imprisonment for one year. In that connection, the spokesman reminded all employers not to defy the law by employing illegal workers. The ImmD will continue to take resolute enforcement action to combat such offences.
Under the existing mechanism, the ImmD will, as a standard procedure, conduct an initial screening of vulnerable persons, including illegal workers, illegal immigrants, sex workers and foreign domestic helpers, who are arrested during any operation with a view to ascertaining whether they are trafficking in persons (TIP) victims. When any TIP indicator is revealed in the initial screening, the ImmD officers will conduct a full debriefing and identification by using a standardised checklist to ascertain the presence of TIP elements, such as threats and coercion in the recruitment phase and the nature of exploitation. Identified TIP victims will be provided with various forms of support and assistance, including urgent intervention, medical services, counselling, shelter or temporary accommodation and other supporting services. The ImmD calls on TIP victims to report crimes to the relevant departments immediately.
Hong Kong Customs on March 1 and 3 detected four sea smuggling cases involving ocean-going vessels and a river trade vessel at the Kwai Chung Container Terminals and the Tsing Yi Customs Cargo Examination Compound. A large batch of suspected smuggled electronic goods with a total estimated market value of about $355 million was seized.
Through intelligence analysis and risk assessment, Customs officers on March 1 and 3 identified three ocean-going vessels preparing to depart from Hong Kong for Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, and a river trade vessel destined for Guangxi, for inspection. A large batch of suspected smuggled electronic goods, including integrated circuits, monitors, routers, tablets and vehicle spare parts, was seized inside four containers on board the vessels.
An investigation is ongoing. The likelihood of arrests is not ruled out.
Customs is the primary law enforcement agency responsible for tackling smuggling activities and has long been combating various smuggling activities on all fronts. Customs will keep up its enforcement action and continue to resolutely combat sea smuggling activities through proactive risk management and intelligence-based enforcement strategies, and carry out targeted anti-smuggling operations at suitable times to crack down on related crimes.
Smuggling is a serious offence. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years upon conviction.
Members of the public may report any suspected smuggling activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).
The Air Accident Investigation Exchange Forum 2025, hosted by the Air Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA) in Hong Kong for three consecutive days from March 12, concluded today (March 14). Other participating investigation authorities were the Office of Aviation Safety and the Aviation Accident Investigation Center of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) of Singapore and the Accident Prevention and Investigation Group of the Civil Aviation Authority of Macao (AACM).
This regional forum was the first of its kind organised by the AAIA since its inception in 2018. Riding on the theme “Regional Investigative Synergy, Aviation Safety Excellence”, the forum attracted professional representatives from investigation authorities from the Mainland, Singapore, Macao and Hong Kong. It aimed to deepen regional ties, share forefront investigation experiences, exchange latest investigation methodologies and technological advancements with a view to strengthening aviation safety.
Deputy Secretary for Transport and Logistics Ms Joan Hung welcomed and thanked the distinguished representatives for joining the forum in Hong Kong. She said that the forum’s foundation was actually underpinned by the close collaboration among the investigation authorities of the four places over the years, symbolising their mutual commitment in enhancing aviation safety. The Chief Accident and Safety Investigator of the AAIA, Mr Man Ka-chai, highlighted in his keynote speech the significance of fostering mutual collaboration among the authorities in safeguarding aviation safety. The forum, he said, served as a dynamic interactive platform for partner authorities to deliberate the best solutions to the latest challenges in civil aviation investigations.
The Safety Oversight Commissioner of the CAAC and Director of the CAAC Office of Aviation Safety, Captain Zhu Tao; the Director of TSIB of Singapore, Mr Michael Toft; and the President of the AACM, Mr Stanley Pun, also delivered speeches at the forum.
Through a series of presentations, case studies and thematic seminars, this three-day forum allowed participating guests to share their insights and delve into the latest investigation techniques, human factors analyses and methods of introducing the evaluation of organisational/systematic factors into investigative processes, etc. The participants also visited the Airport Meteorological Office of the Hong Kong Observatory and inspected the aircraft accident recovery equipment and supporting tools managed by the Airport Authority Hong Kong to learn more about the supportive measures in place at Hong Kong International Airport for safeguarding aviation safety.
The AAIA had established co-operation arrangements with the CAAC, TSIB of Singapore and AACM individually to strengthen the regional collaborative ties, covering exchanges and sharing of information, experiences, facilities and equipment. The co-operation arrangements are available at the AAIA webpage (www.tlb.gov.hk/aaia/eng/about_us/cooperation_arrangements/index.html).
