Number of persons held at Mau Tau Kok Detention Centre

Raquel Amador made this Freedom of Information request to Immigration Department

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

The request was successful.

Dear Immigration Department,

I am writing to make a data access request about the number of persons held at Mau Tau Kok Detention Centre. May I know, in each of the years between 2018-20:

a) the average daily detainee population

b) the detainee population on 31 December of each year

c) the number of persons admitted in each year

Yours faithfully,

Raquel Amador

Immigration Department

Our Reference: (2) in L/M (500) in ImmD DR/6-5/10/R

Dear Ms Amador,

Re: Freedom of Information request – Number of persons held at Ma Tau Kok
Detention Centre

Our department has received your application for access to information on
11 March 2021.  Your application is now under processing.  According to
paragraph 1.16 of the Code on Access to Information, our department will
inform you of the latest progress of the case separately on or before 31
March 2021.  In the meantime, please contact the undersigned via this
email if you have any enquiry.

Yours sincerely,

FUNG Tsz-ho
for Director of Immigration

Immigration Department

Our Reference: (3) in L/M (500) in ImmD DR/6-5/10/R
Dear Ms Amador,
Re: Freedom of Information request – Number of persons held at Ma Tau Kok
Detention Centre
I refer to your request for access to information on 11 March 2021 and our
interim reply to you on 19 March 2021.  I hereby provide you the following
information:
(a) Average daily detainee population in each year at the Ma Tau Kok
Detention Centre (“MTKDC”)

Year 2018 2019 2020
No. of detainees 42 33 41

(b) Detainee population on 31 December of each year at the MTKDC

Year 2018 2019 2020
No. of detainees 22 10 43

(c) Number of admissions to the MTKDC in each year

Year 2018 2019 2020
No. of admissions 5069 3936 3893

I hope the information is useful to you.
Yours sincerely,

FUNG Tsz-ho
for Director of Immigration

Dear Immigration Department,

Thank you for your reply to my request. I would also like to ask for additional information about the number of persons held at Ma Tau Kok Detention Centre. May I know,

a) the average detainee population of each of the years between 2010 – 2017,

B) the detainee population on 31 December of each of the years between 2010 - 2017,

c) the number of persons admitted in each of the years between 2010 – 2012,

If a CSV or Excel format is possible, I would greatly appreciate it.

Yours faithfully,

Raquel Amador

Immigration Department

Our Reference: L/M (529) in ImmD DR/6-5/10/R

Dear Raquel Amador,
Our department has received your application for access to information on
15.09.2021. Your application is now under processing. According to
paragraph 1.16 of the Code on Access to Information, our department will
inform you of the latest progress of the case separately on or before
05.10.2021. In the meantime, please contact the undersigned via this email
if you have any enquiry.

Best regards,

CHAN, Tsz-ho
for Director of Immigration

Immigration Department

Our Reference: L/M (529) in ImmD DR/6-5/10/R

Dear Raquel Amador,
I refer to your request for access to information on 15.09.2021 and our
interim reply to you on 21.09.2021. I hereby provide you with the
following information.

(a) Average detainee population in each year at the Ma Tau Kok Detention
Centre (“MTKDC”)

Year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
No. of Persons 50 38 45 47 39 37 43 48

(b) Detainee population on 31 December of each year at the MTKDC

Year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
No. of Persons 24 37 74 44 25 26 40 25

(c) The number of admissions to the MTKDC in each year between 2010 and
2012

Year 2010 2011 2012
No. of Admissions 6 766 5 487 5 567

I hope the information is useful to you.

Best regards,

CHAN, Tsz-ho
for Director of Immigration

Dear Immigration Department,

Thank you for the information. However, it seems that the numbers provided for yearly admissions to MTKDC are not consistent with the statistics for the years available in the Annual Reports. For example, the Annual Report states that in 2012, there were 16 673 persons admitted to MTKDC, whereas the information provided in our latest email exchange states that there were 5 567 persons admitted in the same year. Please see this link for reference (https://www.immd.gov.hk/publications/a_r...).

May I know, what is the difference between these two sets of information?

Thank you for your help with this inquiry.

Yours faithfully,

Raquel Amador

Immigration Department

Our Reference: L/M (538) in ImmD DR/6-5/10/R

Dear Raquel Amador,
Our department has received your application for access to information on
13.10.2021. Your application is now under processing. According to
paragraph 1.16 of the Code on Access to Information, our department will
inform you of the latest progress of the case separately on or before
02.11.2021. In the meantime, please contact the undersigned via this email
if you have any enquiry.

Best regards,

CHAN, Tsz-ho
for Director of Immigration

Immigration Department

Dear Raquel Amador,

I refer to your request for access to information on 13.10.2021 and our
interim reply to you on 21.10.2021.

As per your previous requests under CAI for the number of persons admitted
to Ma Tau Kok Detention Centre (MTKDC) each year, we provided to you the
number of new admissions to MTKDC over the specific year, which to our
understanding was the information you were looking for.

The number published in our Annual Reports refers to a rolling number over
the specific year of 1. the daily number of new admissions and 2. the
daily number of detainees who had been admitted and still remained in
MTKDC.

Thank you for enlightening us on the possible confusion that may be caused
to the reader.  We will take into account your input when preparing the
figures for the upcoming Annual Report in order to enhance clarity.

Best regards,

CHAN, Tsz-ho
for Director of Immigration

Dear Immigration Department,

Thank you for your email and the explanation. I am glad to hear that this observation will be able to help improve clarity regarding the relevant statistic in future reports.

In this case, I would like to additionally request the figures on annual admittances to MTKDC for each of the years between 2013 - 2017.

Thank you again for your help with this inquiry.

Yours faithfully,

Raquel Amador

Dear Immigration Department,

I am writing to follow up on my additional request for information dated Nov 10, 2021. Please see the original request below for reference and kindly respond soon.

Yours faithfully,

Raquel Amador

* * *

Dear Immigration Department,

Thank you for your email and the explanation. I am glad to hear that this observation will be able to help improve clarity regarding the relevant statistic in future reports.

In this case, I would like to additionally request the figures on annual admittances to MTKDC for each of the years between 2013 - 2017.

Thank you again for your help with this inquiry.

Yours faithfully,

Raquel Amador

Records and Data Management Section, Immigration Department

Dear Raquel Amador,

Thanks for your email of 24 November 2021.

Regarding your access to information request on the caption subject, you
may wish to note that we did not receive the said request mentioned in your
email before. Your request, which was received by us only via your email
below on 24 November 2021, is now under our active processing.

Best regards

(Mr. W M Fung)
for Director of Immigration

From: Raquel Amador <[FOI #575 email]>
To: FOI requests at Immigration Department <[Immigration Department request email]>
Date: 24/11/2021 11:38
Subject: Re: Number of persons held at Ma Tau Kok Detention Centre

Dear Immigration Department,

I am writing to follow up on my additional request for information dated
Nov 10, 2021. Please see the original request below for reference and
kindly respond soon.

Yours faithfully,

Raquel Amador

* * *

Dear Immigration Department,

Thank you for your email and the explanation. I am glad to hear that this
observation will be able to help improve clarity regarding the relevant
statistic in future reports.

In this case, I would like to additionally request the figures on annual
admittances to MTKDC for each of the years between 2013 - 2017.

Thank you again for your help with this inquiry.

Yours faithfully,

Raquel Amador

show quoted sections

Immigration Department

Our Reference: L/M (547) in ImmD DR/6-5/10/R

Dear Raquel Amador,
Thank you for your email of 24.11.2021.

I refer to your request for access to information on 24.11.2021 and our
reply to you on the same day. I hereby provide you with the following
information.

Number of admissions to the Ma Tau Kok Detention Centre (“MTKDC”) in the
years between 2013-2017:

Year No. of admissions
2013 5 048
2014 4 256
2015 4 974
2016 5 164
2017 5 261

I hope the information is useful to you.

Best regards,

CHAN, Tsz-ho
for Director of Immigration