Public Security Police (PSP) officers Monday busted an illegal inn operating out of a flat in Nova Taipa Gardens, in which three illegal immigrants were staying, according to a statement by the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO).
The office said that it had earlier received a tip-off that the flat housed an illegal inn but MGTO officials and PSP officers failed to enter the flat at that time.
According a PSP statement cited by The Macau Post Daily, the flat is located on the 28th floor of Block 31 of Nova Taipa Gardens.
At about 5:15 p.m., PSP officers managed to enter the flat and meanwhile told MGTO inspectors to be at the scene, said the MGTO statement, adding the swoop confirmed that the flat had been used as an illegal inn.
The MGTO statement also said that the office had started legal procedures to stop the flat from being operated as an illegal inn. The MGTO inspectors sealed the flat yesterday. The statement also said that MGTO personnel had previously found a flat in Nova Taipa Gardens operating as an illegal inn. However, the statement insisted that the residential estate is not a hot bed of illegal inns.
According to the MGTO statement, there were nine people staying in the flat, three of them illegal immigrants. A person who visited someone in the flat at the time of the raid was also questioned by the authorities.
According to legislation on combating illegal accommodation businesses, MGTO officials are in charge of implementing the law but PSP officers have to be present when MGTO personnel are entering a suspected illegal inn.
Civic leaders and residents, particularly those living in Zape, in Macau peninsula, where illegal inns are said to be mushrooming, have been urging the government to put more effort into tackling the problem involving public security, hygiene and noise issues.(macaunews)
