This is the 1105th issue of One Day in Hong Kong
Cross-border fraud victims increased to 36 Hong Kong police detained 5 people
Recently, some Hong Kong people suspected of being lured to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries, and were imprisoned and forced to engage in illegal work, which caused widespread concern in society.
Senior Superintendent Ho Chun-tung of the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau ("O" of the Hong Kong Police Force) today (21 December) released more details about the case. He said that in the case of Hong Kong people being lured to Southeast Asian countries, as of this morning, the police had received a total of 36 requests for help, including 32 men and 4 women, aged between 19 and 57. At present, 14 people have confirmed their personal freedom and safety, of which 11 have returned to Hong Kong, while the other 3 have not returned to Hong Kong according to their wishes.
He Zhendong narrates the case, source: point news
However, police suspect that 22 people are still being detained. Police said they had contacted 13 of them and had confirmed their personal safety and would continue their efforts to contact the other 9 who were missing. According to the police, according to the information available, the victims are mainly physically restricted, basic personal safety is not too much of a problem, and some victims may have been slapped after fleeing unsuccessfully, but there is no information on them having suffered long-term, systematic physical harm.
At the same time, the police arrested 5 Hong Kong locals in cross-border job search and online dating fraud cases, each of whom is being detained for investigation, and will be prosecuted later, which does not rule out that another person will be arrested. The arrests include 3 men and 2 women, aged between 17 and 51. The police suspect that two of the men are key members of a multinational group, aged 23 and 30, who are responsible for contacting and manipulating the other two arrested persons to recruit victims. As for another 28-year-old woman, police suspected she had posted scam posts on social media related to cross-border job scams.
Ho mentioned that most of the criminal methods of the "piglet selling" group are to use social media, pyramid schemes or friend introductions to attract victims and provide some job opportunities that claim to be "high pay and low demand" in Southeast Asian countries, such as those related to casinos or real estate, which is very impractical. When the victim was hired to fly to the local area, as soon as he landed, he was immediately detained from his passport and transferred to a "fraud center" and forced to engage in fraud work. Victims who refuse to work or fail to meet their standards are often treated inhumanely. Some of the victims managed to escape (some escaped on their own, or after paying a ransom) or received help from the Chinese embassy or consulate in the area.
In addition, a few days ago, Taiwan media broke the news that the adjacent "KK Park" in Myanmar is the real transit destination for victims of cross-border fraud in Southeast Asia, and it is also the base camp of fraud groups. This is also confirmed by the information disclosed at the press conference held by the DAB today.
"KK Park" in Myanmar (Web Photo)
The Legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region recently received a request for help from the families of the victims of the "KK Park", and the DAB held a press conference on this, but because it was worried that too much of the content revealed by the press conference would affect the personal safety of the victims, they could only describe the process of deception, the dialogue between the families and the victims.
According to information disclosed at the press conference, upon arrival in Thailand, victims are transferred to Myanmar's "KK Park", also known as the "Fraud Center". Some victims said they saw other Hong Kongers in the park, including even their own middle school classmates, and also met many Taiwanese. Some Taiwanese people tried to escape but failed, and some newcomers wanted to secretly use their mobile phones to ask for help but were found, and the consequence was that they were beaten to the head and bleeding, which made the victims very frightened.
The DAB held a press conference today, image source: Point News
The victim said that because too many people are now concerned about the incident, the "KK Park" began to stop work, and the scam group asked the victim to provide a sum of money before considering letting the person go home, but the specific date of returning home could not be determined. The family said that the victim had said that he could return to Hong Kong in mid-September, then said that he could return to Hong Kong in October, and recently said that he would be able to return to Hong Kong in a few months, and then said that he would have to pay a lot of ransom to leave the local area, and the passive situation made the family nervous and worried.
In addition, the Hong Kong Immigration Department's "Assistance to Hong Kong Residents Abroad Group" recently set up a social platform (WhatsApp) hotline 51908909. As of this morning, the Hong Kong Immigration Department had received 84 calls for help and 52 text messages for help, but only 4 of them were job-related frauds.
The police said that 2 of the cases were previously learned of the case, and the other 2 were new cases, and the police are actively investigating to ensure the personal safety of the deceived. The Police stressed that the helpline is only reserved for job seekers and scammers, and members of the public should pay attention when seeking help.
Li Jiachao: "Coming to Hong Kong" means that they trust Hong Kong and will actively assist new arrivals to integrate into society
The Hong Kong New Arrivals Service Fund held its 5th Inauguration Ceremony and Award Presentation Ceremony for The University Scholarship Scheme for Newly Arrived Students today (21st) afternoon.
In his speech, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Lee Ka-chiu, affirmed the work of the Hong Kong Newcomers Service Fund, saying that the HKSAR Government has been actively assisting newcomers to adapt to life in Hong Kong as soon as possible, and through the "Expectation Management Plan" of non-governmental organisations and provincial governments such as Guangdong Province, the Mainland, to let newcomers understand the living environment in Hong Kong in advance; Regional organisations organise adaptation programmes, volunteer programmes and visiting activities to establish a mutual aid network to help newcomers integrate into the community as soon as possible.
Li Jiachao's speech, Source: Information Office of the Hong Kong SAR Government
It is reported that at present, on average, more than 40,000 mainland residents in Hong Kong hold one-way permits to settle in Hong Kong every year. Since its establishment in 2009, the Foundation has been committed to providing diversified services for grassroots newcomers and families, helping newcomers to adapt to the society through volunteer programmes, children's services, parent-child activities, support for subdivided families and other services, so as to serve the society and build Hong Kong.
In addition to supporting newcomers to adapt to life in Hong Kong as soon as possible, the Scholarship Scheme for New Arrivals for Hong Kong Students to Further Their Studies in University, initiated by the Foundation's Permanent Presidents Tang Ching-ho and Pang Yiting, has been held for eight sessions to provide HK$100,000 for new Arrivals with outstanding achievements but poor families. Scholarships were awarded to newly arrived Students who had just received scholarships at the ceremony.
It is reported that the officiating guests attending the event also included Ho Jing, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government of Hong Kong, Ip Lau Suk-yee, convener of the Executive Council of Hong Kong and member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, and Tang Ping-keung, secretary for security of Hong Kong.
Qiao Yingyu, a member of the "12 Fugitive Offenders" case, will return to Hong Kong tomorrow after completing his sentence
According to Radio Television Hong Kong, qiao Yingyu, one of the defendants in the "12 fugitives" case, will return to Hong Kong tomorrow (22nd) and hand over to the Hong Kong police after two years in prison.
Twelve defendants and wanted criminals in the "black riot case" attempted to smuggle to Taiwan in August 2020, and were arrested by the Mainland Coast Guard in the waters under the jurisdiction of Guangdong, 10 of whom have served sentences in the mainland or are exempt from prosecution and transferred to Hong Kong. The other two, Deng Tangran and Qiao Yingyu, were suspected of organizing others to sneak across the border and were sentenced to 3 years in prison and 20,000 yuan in prison, and 2 years in prison and 15,000 yuan in prison.
Eight of the "12 fugitives" case were handed over to Hong Kong earlier, source: Dianxin
At about 9:00 a.m. on August 23, 2020, the Guangdong Provincial Coast Guard seized a vessel suspected of illegally crossing the border in the waters under its jurisdiction, and the Coast Guard found 12 Hong Kongers after boarding the ship. According to the data, the ages of each person were between 16 and 31 years old at the time of the crime, and the 12 people were Li Yuxuan, Zhang Junfu, Zhang Mingyu, Li Zixian, Guo Zilin, Zheng Zihao, Liao Ziwen, Huang Weiran, Deng Zhiran, Yan Wenqian, Huang Linfu and Qiao Yingyu.
It is reported that the trial disclosed that Deng Tangran and Qiao Yingyu had discussed the smuggling plan with the "Shangjia" in the early stage of preparing for smuggling, and were arranged to organize and plan the smuggling. Deng Tangran purchased a speedboat, learned basic speedboat driving skills under the arrangement, and was responsible for driving a smuggling speedboat, while Qiao Yingyu was responsible for liaising with other people involved in the case.
There were 6,513 new confirmed cases in Hong Kong
The fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong rebounded, and the Department of Health and the HOSPITAL held a press conference on the epidemic today (21st) afternoon. Chief Physician au Ka Wing, Chief Physician of the Infectious Diseases Division of the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health, announced that as of 00:00 today, there were 6,513 new confirmed cases in Hong Kong, including 6,276 locally confirmed cases and 237 imported cases. Among the locally confirmed cases, 2239 were confirmed by nucleic acid testing, and 4037 cases were positive for rapid testing and positive for nucleic acid review.
List of recent new confirmed cases in Hong Kong, source: Wenhui Network
Lau Ka-hsien, Chief Administrative Manager (Quality and Standards) of the Hospital Authority, announced that 3 more confirmed cases have died in Hong Kong in the past day, and the fifth wave of the epidemic has accumulated 9392 deaths so far. The new deaths involved 3 men between the ages of 65 and 81, all of whom had not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Hong Kong's Secretary for Medical And Health, Lo Chun-mok, said in a blog post today that about 6,400 young children aged 6 months to 3 have received their first dose of TheOxing vaccine and have so far observed that they have not had any serious or unexpected abnormal events except for a brief period of mild discomfort after vaccination, such as fever, needle redness or rash, stressing that it is very safe for young children to receive the Flush vaccine.
In addition, Lo said that the elderly are one of the high-risk groups, and the first and second dose vaccination rates of residential residents have risen to about 94% and 90% respectively, and the vaccination rate of the third dose has reached 53%. Compared with the first dose vaccination rate of 93% of the overall population, only about 80% of the elderly aged 60 or over have received the first dose, and about 350,000 elderly people have not yet received any covid-19 vaccine, he said.