Lawmaker Antonio Ng Kuok Cheong urged the government Tuesday to close the loophole which is being used by mainlanders to stay in the city for up to nine days as “transit passengers”.
Ng said in a written interpellation submitted to the Legislative Assembly that the official figure from the Public Security Police (PSP) showed that there were about 3.6 million mainland Chinese passport holders who were allowed to enter Macau as “transit passengers” before supposedly heading to a third destination.
However, at least two million of those “transit passengers” returned directly to the mainland from Macau after staying in the city, Ng said.
According to current immigration rules, mainland Chinese passport holders are allowed to stay in Macau for seven days the first time they use Macau as a “transit point” before supposedly heading for a third destination. The second time within 30 days they enter they are given a two-day visa, while the third time they are routinely refused entry.
However, if the mainland Chinese passport holder can prove that he or she went to a third destination from Macau, a seven-day visa will be granted again, with no limit on the number of times.
After 30 days the process re-sets itself.
Ng urged the government to come up with measures to deal with the matter and fix the loopholes.
China Central Television (CCTV) last week aired an expose on the mainlanders’ method of entering Hong Kong or Macau by obtaining a third party country visa.
This method allows mainlanders to bypass the regular Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) or tour group visa process.(macaunews/macaupost)
