immigration authorities arrested 20 people, including 12 suspected illegal workers and eight employers, in a four-day citywide crackdown on unlawful employment that ended this week.
The Immigration Department operation, which ran from Saturday through Tuesday, targeted 42 locations across the city, including restaurants, retail shops, food factories, guesthouses and commercial and residential buildings.
The 12 suspected illegal workers — 10 women and two men, aged 24 to 68 — were mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines. They included one foreign domestic helper, two overstayers who had previously worked as domestic helpers, three holders of recognizance forms that prohibit employment, one visitor and five overstaying visitors.
The eight arrested employers — seven men and one woman — were owners or managers of the businesses involved.
In one raid Saturday at a licensed food factory in Kwai Chung, officers arrested five Indonesian illegal workers and two company owners. Authorities said the factory had set up an unauthorized production line to supply packaged food to the owners’ restaurants, apparently to cut costs. The products were sold at expos and events.
The unauthorized operation had been running for one to two months, with workers recruited through referrals and paid HK$200 per day, according to the Immigration Department. Cooking utensils and food packaging were seized as evidence.
Other arrested workers had been employed as dishwashers, waiters, kitchen helpers and cleaners in restaurants and guesthouses.
The department said it maintains a “zero-tolerance” policy toward illegal employment and that investigations are continuing, with further arrests possible.
Authorities reminded employers that hiring illegal workers carries a maximum penalty of a HK$500,000 fine and 10 years’ imprisonment. Employers were urged to verify applicants’ identity documents and take all practicable steps to confirm their right to work in Hong Kong.
Violators of conditions of stay face a maximum fine of HK$50,000 and up to two years in prison. Illegal immigrants, overstayers and others prohibited from working who take any paid or unpaid job or establish a business face a maximum fine of HK$50,000 and three years’ imprisonment.
