I REFER to Geraldine C. Tagatac's letter ''Inferior standards of service'' (South China Morning Post, August 26). Before opening each day, our staff in the public-oriented sections at Immigration Headquarters position the seats in the waiting hall in such a way that a passage is left leading to each emergency exit. In addition, checks are made during the day to ensure that the passage is not blocked. However, because of the large number of applicants attending our offices, it is difficult to prevent the seats from being moved to other positions and we have to rely on the co-operation of the public in maintaining tidiness in the waiting area. Escalators at public-oriented floors of the Immigration Headquarters continue to operate for some time after normal working hours to facilitate staff members and a very small number of applicants whose applications are still being processed. The escalators are switched off at 6pm on weekdays by which time all applicants will normally have left. For security reasons, the glass doors on the first floor lift lobby are also closed at the same time. The building security guards have now been briefed to check that all applicants have left our office before switching off the escalators. Prominent notices will also be displayed at the first floor lift lobby to direct the public to use the exit on the ground floor after 6pm. It has always been our practice to address a member of the public by his name and our staff have no problem in pronouncing foreign names. However, if there is no response after repeated pagings, the processing officer will, as a last resort, page him by his name, address and the type of passport he holds. This has proved to be effective. Our experience is that no applicant has ever been kept waiting in our office until 6.30pm as alleged by the writer. S. K. LEUNG for Director of Immigration
