New Hong Kong immigration system barring ‘undesirables’ from boarding flights to city comes into effect
Hong Kong Free Press
A new immigration system to bar “undesirables” from boarding flights to Hong Kong has come into effect, three years after related changes to the city’s immigration laws sparked fears of entry and exit bans.
Hong Kong’s Immigration Department announced that the Advance Passenger Information (API) system had been implemented on Tuesday, enabling the department to “further enhance its passenger clearance” and “to prevent undesirables, including potential non-refoulement claimants, from boarding flights heading to Hong Kong.”
Under the new system, all aircraft operators are required to transfer data about flights and passengers heading to Hong Kong to the Immigration Department in advance.
When a passenger checks in for a flight, the aircraft operator will capture the required API data from their travel document and submit that data and the aircraft information to the API system.
“The aircraft operator shall act upon the direction given through the API system, i.e. to allow or not allow specific travellers to board the aircraft heading to Hong Kong,” the Immigration Department said in a statement released on Tuesday.
The department added that the travel of Hong Kong permanent residents would not be affected, as their freedom to travel is guaranteed under Article 31 of the Basic Law and Article 8 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights.
“Such freedom and right are not affected by the implementation of the API system. The API system will not issue a no-board direction against Hong Kong permanent residents who enjoy the right of abode in Hong Kong,” the department said.
It added that there would be a transitional period of 12 months as it would take time for over 100 carriers to connect to the API system and to ensure that it was running smoothly.
Controversial ‘Lock Up Hong Kong Ordinance’
The API system was authorised by amendments to the city’s immigration ordinance, which granted new powers to authorities to ban people from entering the territory.
Passed by the legislature in April 2021, the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 2020 triggered concerns that those powers would be used to target activists or politically sensitive people.
Under the amended bill, the secretary for security may make regulations to supply to the director of immigration with “information or data relating to a carrier, its passengers or members of its crew.”
The secretary for security may also make regulations “to empower the Director to direct that a passenger or a member of the crew of a carrier may or may not be carried on board the carrier.”
While critics called the bill the “Lock Up Hong Kong Ordinance” and raised concerns that it increased restrictions on people entering Hong Kong, the government said in April 2021 that the bill was targeted at arriving asylum seekers and refugees.
In recent years, a number of people have been barred from entering Hong Kong, including journalists who covered the 2019 protests and unrest. In June 2023, Japanese freelance journalist Yoshiaki Ogawa was denied entry after arriving in the city, while earlier this year, Aleksandra Bielakowska, a representative of international NGO Reporters Without Borders, was deported to Taiwan after being barred from entering the city.
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