100 dodged overworked staff at checkpoints

One hundred people have managed to evade cross-border checks in the past three years as a lack of manpower and heavy workload blunt the alertness of immigration officers, an Ombudsman's report disclosed yesterday.

The report shows the number of people slipping through land borders and the airport increased from 27 in 1998 to 30 in 1999 and 43 last year.

The news followed the extensive investigation sparked by the disappearance of autistic teenager Yu Man-hon, 16, who slipped through the Lowu border checkpoint in August and is still missing. Man-hon ran away from his mother at Yau Ma Tei MTR station, made it across the border, was returned to Hong Kong but was then sent back to the mainland again.

Ombudsman Alice Tai Yuen-ying said the shortage of manpower during peak hours at Lowu and airport control points was the main cause.

'During peak holiday periods there is a growing influx of travellers at these control points. The heavy workload puts a high degree of pressure on the officers,' she said.

Ms Tai cited a case in which two supervisors at Lowu checkpoints had to oversee 31 channels. An Immigration Department regulation states each channel supervisor should attend to no more than six at a time. Ms Tai said a lack of understanding, skill, observation power and alertness of the immigration officers was also to blame.

Ombudsman Office investigators randomly examined 10 cases of people slipping through border control points and 15 cases of people found without proof of identity.