Three-year visa prohibition aims to limit the damage caused by illegal workers
Mainland tourists caught working illegally or engaging in prostitution in Hong Kong would lose their right to apply for travel visas to the city for three years, mainland public security officials told a Hong Kong delegation yesterday.
The officials also confirmed that mainland children of Hong Kong residents would be permitted to join their families in Hong Kong after the age of 18 if they had filed their application for right of abode before turning 18.
The measures were revealed when members of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) met Vice-Minister of Public Security Yang Huanning and vice-director of the Exit-Entry Administration Wang Shenghe.
DAB chairman Tsang Yok-sing said the three-year entry ban would be imposed on mainland tourists with criminal records in Hong Kong.
DAB security affairs spokesman Lau Kong-wah said the delegation had voiced concerns over a possible increase in crime - including a rise in firearms trafficking and the number of illegal workers and prostitutes - after Hong Kong opened its border to individual travellers from the mainland.
