Hong Kong police deploy non-ethnic Chinese personnel in undercover crackdown on illegal food delivery workers
- Joint operation with Immigration Department launched in response to recent rise in non-ethnic Chinese illegal immigrants caught crossing the border since last August
- Sixty-nine suspects rounded up in recent operation, including 18 local residents accused of renting access to food delivery accounts to undocumented workers
Hong Kong police have deployed non-ethnic Chinese undercover personnel to root out asylum seekers illegally working as food delivery couriers, as part of a wider crackdown that has led to the arrest of more than 60 suspects, the Post has learned.
Superintendent Franky Cheung Ting-fung of the force’s organised crime and triad bureau on Thursday said the joint operation with the Immigration Department, which ran from Saturday to Tuesday, was prompted by a surge in the number of non-ethnic Chinese illegal immigrants coming to Hong Kong since last August.
“[The bureau] earlier deployed undercover personnel to infiltrate non-ethnic Chinese communities, collecting intelligence on illegal entrances and illegal workers,” he said.
A source told the Post that police had deployed non-ethnic Chinese staff as part of the undercover operation.
The number of people caught crossing the border illegally reached 1,313 last year. Of these, 80 per cent were apprehended between August and December, police said.