Let Hong Kong law enforcement officers handle immigration on mainland Chinese soil, concern group says

Proposal raised as city presses on with controversial joint checkpoint plan for high-speed rail project

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The West Kowloon terminal of the high-speed rail project. Trains are to begin running to the mainland next year. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 6:15pm, 25 Sep 2017Updated: 10:54pm, 25 Sep 2017

Hong Kong law enforcement officers should be allowed to handle immigration and customs clearance for high-speed rail passengers on mainland Chinese soil, a concern group said, after its members overwhelmingly backed the proposal.

Such an arrangement is the exact opposite of the government’s plan to let mainland officers work in Hong Kong, a prospect that has led critics to assert the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, would be violated.

Under the government’s plan, Hong Kong would lease a quarter of the terminal to the mainland. Photo by Billy H.C. Kwok

“The endorsed proposal will offer the same efficiency that the government’s proposal offers,” Edward Yiu Chung-yim, a former lawmaker and member of the Co-Location Concern Group, said on Monday.

The controversy relates to a HK$84.4 billion high-speed rail project connecting Hong Kong to the mainland. It is expected to open in the third quarter of next year.

The endorsed proposal will offer the same efficiency that the government’s proposal offers

Edward Yiu Chung-yim, concern group member

In July, the government announced its plan for joint immigration and quarantine facilities in which Hong Kong would lease a quarter of the project’s West Kowloon terminal to the mainland. Mainland officers would enjoy almost total jurisdiction in the leased area.