2 owners of Hong Kong eatery arrested for hiring 5 illegal workers in food factory
Foreign workers, who processed food that supplied owners’ restaurant and local food fairs, also arrested by authorities in citywide crackdown
Hong Kong immigration authorities have broken up an operation in which two local restaurant owners hired illegal foreign workers at their food factory to supply products to their eatery and culinary fairs in the city.
Pau Hiu-fung from the Immigration Department’s foreign domestic helpers investigation section said on Tuesday that two owners of a local Southeast Asian restaurant and five illegal workers they hired were arrested last Saturday.
“Our investigations show that the food produced by the factory hiring illegal workers was not only supplied to the owners’ restaurant, but was also suspected to have entered the market via different means, including sales at the food fairs and other sales exhibitions,” the senior immigration officer said.
Pau said the factory held a valid licence, but the owners were alleged to have hired illegal workers to produce and process food products to save costs.
Officers arrested three men and two women, all Indonesians aged between 24 and 52, who were found working during a spot check at the factory in Kwai Chung.
A large quantity of cooking utensils, food packaging boxes and packaging tools was also seized as evidence.
The two restaurant owners, a local man and woman, were also at the factory during the check and were arrested on the spot.