Hong Kong police arrest 4 Pakistani nationals over entering city unlawfully, hunt 4 other suspected illegal immigrants

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Hong Kong police arrested four men on suspicion of illegally entering the city on Monday after they boarded a bus in Shek O using a damp HK$100 (US$12.8) banknote.

Four other suspected illegal immigrants who accompanied the Pakistani passport holders on the double-decker bus to Shau Kei Wan were being hunted, the force said.

Shortly before 8.30am, police received multiple calls from passers-by who spotted on Cape D’Aguilar Road in Shek O a group of eight non-Chinese men thought to have entered the city illegally.

The group had escaped before police arrived. Officers then carried out a search and set up a roadblock in the area.

About half an hour later, a bus driver made a report to police about eight suspected illegal immigrants jumping into the vehicle on Cape D’ Aguilar Road in Shek O. They got off at Shau Kei Wan bus terminal on Aldrich Street.

“The group paid with a damp HK$100 banknote for the bus fare,” a source familiar with the case said.

The four suspects, aged between 22 and 24, were apprehended on Po Man Street near the bus terminal.

On Saturday, four non-Chinese men were arrested on Peaked Hill, southwest of Lantau Island, after a fisherman alerted the authorities when he spotted the group in distress.

Latest police figures showed 968 non-Chinese people, mainly from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam, were arrested for illegally entering Hong Kong in the first 10 months of this year, a sharp increase from 482 in 2022 entirely.

More than 100 people from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan were taken into custody in seven incidents between October 22 and October 31 this year.

A surge in the arrest of people from South and Southeast Asian countries over illegal entry in recent months has prompted local authorities to seek help from their counterparts in mainland China.

Hong Kong and mainland authorities arrested more than 120 suspects in a two-pronged operation targeting people smuggling between November 4 and November 6.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung earlier told the Post the increased number of flights from Pakistan and Bangladesh to the mainland had triggered an influx of illegal immigrants into Hong Kong.

Most of the arrivals first flew to the mainland, then went to southern cities such as Shenzhen, where they sneaked into Hong Kong by boat.

A group of Bangladeshi men arrested in an operation last month told police they had paid more than HK$55,000 each for their voyage from their homeland. (SCMP)