Shenzhen multi-entry travel permits for Hong Kong delayed
Would-be Shenzhen travellers are told that no passes will be issued for three weeks on the day that the new tourism scheme came into effect
Non-permanent residents of Shenzhen eager to apply for a multi-entry permit to Hong Kong were met with signs telling them no permits would be issued for the next three weeks on the day new rules took effect.
People turning up at the Shenzhen Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Futian branch were turned away yesterday, the first day of a scheme offering multi-entry permits to the 4.1 million Shenzhen residents who do not hold hukou, the household registration document.
Non-permanent residents previously had to return to their own provinces to apply for multi-entry permits.
However, immigration officers in Shanghai and Beijing said yesterday that increased numbers of people were either applying for single-entry permits for Hong Kong or inquiring about obtaining one. Under a new policy announced last week, which was obscured by the controversy over Shenzhen permits, five other mainland cities relaxed the rules on migrants to those cities applying for single-entry permits to the SAR. The rule changes had angered Hongkongers already concerned by the impact of mainland visitors on the city's infrastructure and resources.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying announced on Friday the creation of a taskforce that would work with the mainland authorities for the next three weeks to examine the impact of the influx on the city. A Hong Kong government spokesman confirmed that no entry permits from any of the six cities would be issued in the next 21 days.
The taskforce's work was expected to be complete before the first visitors arrived, given that it usually takes 15 working days to process a permit application.
Ten members of environmental protection group Green Sense marched to the government offices in Admiralty yesterday to protest about the multi-entry permits.