Immigration Department USM Staffing
Dear Immigration Department,
Hope this letter finds you well. I am grateful if you can provide with me the following information.
1. Please provide details as to factors and qualification criteria taken into consideration for recruiting / selecting Immigration officers that:
(a) Conduct Unified Screening Mechanism (hereinafter as “USM”) Interviews; and
(b) Make USM Decisions.
2. Please provide details as to the average seniority (i.e. the number of years of work experiences as an officer / employee in the Immigration Department) of Immigration Officers tasked with:
(a) USM Interviews; and
(b) Make USM Decisions.
3. Please provide details as to the average duration / time and rotation of Immigration Officers tasked with USM Interviews and making USM Decisions (including those at more senior levels).
According to my information, I am of the knowledge that “all case officers responsible for screening non-refoulement claims will attend a 15-day professional training course before assuming their duties. The course comprises lectures given by senior case officers from overseas common law jurisdictions, united Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officials and local academics.” (Controlling Officer’s Reply of Question Serial No. 2850)
4. Please provide the materials related to the aforementioned training courses.
According to my information, I am of the knowledge that “the ImmD will arrange regular training for case officers to ensure that they have a thorough understanding of the Unified Screening Mechanism and sufficient knowledge to process the cases, including the latest local and overseas jurisprudence, up-to-date information on claimants’ countries of origin, etc.” (Controlling Officer’s Reply of Question Serial No. 2850)
5. Please provide the materials relate to the aforementioned training(s).
6. Please provide information as to how many such aforementioned training(s) have been organized since the introduction of the USM, i.e. March 2014.
7. Please list the date and duration of these aforementioned training(s).
According to my information, I am of the knowledge that “[c]ase officers have also received training on the Istanbul Protocol (which is the international standard for investigating torture cases), the UNHCR procedural standards, the ways to deal with special needs of victims of violence and minors.” (Controlling Officer’s Reply of Question Serial No. 2850)
8. Please provide the materials related to the aforementioned training(s).
9. Please provide information as to how many such aforementioned training(s) have been organized since the introduction of the USM, i.e. March 2014.
10. Please list the date and duration of these aforementioned training(s).
I am aware that the Immigration Department is eager to increase the efficiency of facilitating and handling non-refoulement claims.
11. Please provide details as to the average time between initially registering a USM to
(a) Screening Interview;
(b) The provision of determination of the USM Decision.
12. Please provide details as to the average time between initially registering an appeal against the USM decision to:
(a) Hearing
(b) A determination of appeal provided by TCAB/NRCPO.
I am aware that the Immigration Department has been employing more staff in recent years to expand capacity to handle non-refoulement claims.
13. Please provide details as to the number of staff in the Immigration Department responsible for handling non-refoulement claims.
14. Please provide details as to the number of staff that have completed the training(s) mentioned in Question 4 above.
15. Please provide details as to the average costs incurred, including but not limited to the costs of staff, in the Immigration Department for handling non-refoulement claims.
Please provide the requested information in a PDF / Word / Excel file. Thank you for your assistance on this.
Yours faithfully,
Y. F. Liu
Our ref.: L/M (77) in ImmD RALS1/6-20/3/C
Dear Y. F. Liu,
We refer to your application for access to information of 8 December 2021
relating to United Screening Mechanism.
Your application is now under processing. Our Department would revert to
you on or before 28 December 2021 according to paragraph 1.16 of the Code
on Access to Information.
Best Regards,
(WONG Wing-lung)
for Director of Immigration
To learn more about the application requirements and procedures of the
most frequently used services provided by the Hong Kong Immigration
Department, you are welcome to visit the Easy Access Playlist at Hong Kong
Immigration Department [1]YouTube Channel. The concerned video clips have
Cantonese voice-over supplemented by Chinese or English subtitles.
Our ref. : IL/00797536/21, L/M (77) in ImmD RALS1/6-20/3/C
Dear Y. F. Liu,
We refer to your application for access to information of 8 December 2021
relating to Unified Screening Mechanism.
We need more time to further process your application. Our Department
would revert to you on or before 27 January 2022 according to paragraph
1.18 of the Code on Access to Information.
Best Regards,
(WONG Wing-lung)
for Director of Immigration
To learn more about the application requirements and procedures of the
most frequently used services provided by the Hong Kong Immigration
Department, you are welcome to visit the Easy Access Playlist at Hong Kong
Immigration Department [1]YouTube Channel. The concerned video clips have
Cantonese voice-over supplemented by Chinese or English subtitles.
Our ref. : IL/00052302/22, L/M (77) in ImmD RALS1/6-20/3/C
Dear Y. F. Liu,
We refer to your application for access to information of 8 December 2021
relating to the Unified Screening Mechanism (USM). Further to our interim
replies of 17 & 28 December 2021, please find below the information as
requested:
Items 1 to 10
The Government implemented USM in March 2014 to screen non-refoulement
claims on all applicable grounds in one go. The case officers of the
Immigration Department (ImmD) tasked with the assessment of
non-refoulement claims are mainly Senior Immigration Officers (SIOs) and
Immigration Officers (IOs). SIO is a promotion rank, and the entry
requirements of IO are detailed on the website of ImmD. Apart from the
entry requirements and the induction and other in-service training
provided by ImmD, all case officers responsible for screening
non-refoulement claims have to attend a 15-day professional training
course, which comprises lectures given by the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officials and law and medical
experts from the government, before assuming such duties.
All along, ImmD has been arranging regular training for case officers to
ensure that they have a thorough understanding of USM and sufficient
knowledge to process cases, including the latest local and overseas
precedents, up-to-date information on claimants’ countries of origin,
etc. All case officers have also received training on the Istanbul
Protocol (i.e. the international standard for investigating torture
cases), the UNHCR procedural standards, and ways to deal with special
needs (e.g. victims of violence, minors), so as to ensure that they are
well trained in the handling of the special needs of victims of sex
violence, unaccompanied minors, claimants suffering from post-traumatic
stress disorder and female claimants, etc.
Since the commencement of USM from March 2014 to December 2021, six 15-day
professional training courses were organised. The courses mentioned in
your request were covered by each of the 15-day professional training
courses.
As regards your request for materials on the training provided to case
officers responsible for non-refoulement claim assessment, you may wish to
note that the information you requested involves internal documents
compiled or obtained for the purpose of internal training of our case
officers on investigation techniques and assessment knowledge, as well as
skills necessary for conducting screening of non-refoulement claims in
Hong Kong. Disclosure of details of our internal training, be they
provided by external presenters or by our officers for such purpose, would
adversely affect our work in this respect, and thus harm or prejudice the
proper and efficient conduct of the operation of ImmD. To the extent that
the training information requested contain internal discussion and advice,
disclosure of such information would also inhibit the frankness and
candour of discussion within, as well as advice given to, ImmD.
Therefore, we regret to inform you that we have decided not to disclose
the requested training materials on the reasons set out in Paragraph
2.9(c) and 2.10(b) of Part 2 of the Code on Access to Information (the
Code).
Items 11 and 12
The Immigration (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 took effect on 1 August 2021.
It further improves the handling of non-refoulement claims, including
enhancing efficiency in screening by ImmD and preventing delaying tactics
by claimants; and improves the procedures and functions of the Torture
Claims Appeal Board, etc.
As regards the time for handling each non-refoulement claim, ImmD ensures
that the screening procedures are highly efficient and achieve high
standards of fairness through flexible staff deployment and optimised
workflow. ImmD’s handling time for each claim (from commencement of the
screening procedures to determination by ImmD) has been shortened from
about 25 weeks on average at the early implementation of USM to the
current average of about 10 weeks.
The average time for the Torture Claims Appeal Board/Non-refoulement
Claims Petition Office to process appeal/petition cases received and
determined in 2021 is about 5 months.
Item 13-15
In 2021-22, there are 279 posts in ImmD deployed for handling matters
relating to non-refoulement claims. The posts are tabulated as follows:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Rank | 2021-22 Establishment |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Assistant Director of Immigration | 1 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Principal Immigration Officer | 1 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Assistant Principal Immigration Officer | 3 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Chief Immigration Officer | 11 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Senior Immigration Officer | 96 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Immigration Officer | 72 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Chief Immigration Assistant | 12 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Senior Immigration Assistant | 13 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Immigration Assistant | 57 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Clerical Officer | 1 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Assistant Clerical Officer | 1 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Clerical Assistant | 7 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Senior Medical and Health Officer | 4 |
|---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Total | 279 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The estimated major expenditures of the HKSAR Government on handling
non-refoulement claims and related work in 2021-22 are tabulated below:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Year | Screening of |Repatriation|Publicly-funded|Humanitarian| Total* |
| | claims and |of rejected | legal | assistance | |
| | handling of |claimants^# | assistance | | ($ |
| |appeals/petitions| | |($ million) |million)|
| | |($ million) | ($ million) | | |
| | ($ million) | | | | |
|----------+-----------------+------------+---------------+------------+--------|
| 2021-22 | | | | | |
| | 335 | 47^ | 184 | 706 | 1 272 |
|(estimate)| | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
# ImmD has deployed dedicated manpower to speed up the repatriation of
rejected claimants to their places of origin since 2019-20.
* Individual items may not add up to total due to rounding up.
^ Only the expenditure on the dedicated manpower for the repatriation of
non-refoulement claimants and relevant work is included. As other
expenditures are incurred by duties (e.g. arrangement for air tickets and
application for documents) which form part of ImmD’s overall repatriation
work, we do not maintain a separate breakdown relating to the claimants.
If you are not satisfied with the above decision about part of the
requested information not being provided, you may ask ImmD to review the
decision by writing to the Director of Immigration at the above address.
Alternatively, you may complain to the Ombudsman, whose address is –
30/F, China Merchants Tower
Shun Tak Centre
168-200 Connaught Road Central
Hong Kong
Telephone : 2629 0555
Fax : 2882
8149
Best Regards,
(WONG Wai-sum, Irene)
for Director of Immigration
To learn more about the application requirements and procedures of the
most frequently used services provided by the Hong Kong Immigration
Department, you are welcome to visit the Easy Access Playlist at Hong Kong
Immigration Department [1]YouTube Channel. The concerned video clips have
Cantonese voice-over supplemented by Chinese or English subtitles.
