THE time it takes to clear immigration at Kai Tak compares favourably with other airports given its high usage and physical limitations, Secretary for Security Alistair Asprey told legislators.
He said the Immigration Department had made a number of improvements in clearance times over the last few years.
Without an increase in staff, recent changes to the immigration system had cut the processing time for arriving residents from 90 seconds to one minute and from one minute to 30 seconds for those leaving the territory.
In 1995, the computer terminals would be replaced by optical readers to further reduce the time needed to clear holders of Hongkong identity cards and machine readable passports, Mr Asprey said in his reply to a question by legislator Howard Young.
Mr Asprey said the Government hoped the Immigration Department could be given more resources next year once the screening of Vietnamese asylum-seekers had been finished.
