PSP plans to expand iris-facilitated border clearance

The Public Security Police Force (PSP) yesterday disclosed that iris-facilitated border facilities are planned for six major checkpoints.

The six checkpoints will be the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, Macau International Airport, Taipa Maritime Terminal, Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, and Inner Harbour Ferry Terminal, as well as the Border Gate, which is the first to have the facility as well as the testing checkpoint for the facility.

Expecting usage to rise further, Mui Kin Meng, division head at the PSP, said that the 10 iris channels at the Border Gate have logged over 170,000 registrations and 1.2 million counts of use, as of Jan. 26.

Immigration clearance by electronic identity, meanwhile, has logged over 5.6 million counts of use as of end-2023, equating to about 15.6% of all border crossings. Last year, there were 183 million counts of border crossings, an 86% increase year-on-year. The Border Gate accounted for over 55% of all crossings.

Some 28.25 million people visited Macau last year, or about 72% of the level in 2019. Similar to all years in the past two decades, mainland residents made up the largest part of the visitor count, accounting for precisely 67%.

As for crime figures, last year logged 8,190 cases, a 25% rise year-on-year.

Most of the crimes involved unreturned lost property, theft, physical assault and damage to property. Deputy Commissioner Wong Wai Hong of the PSP believes that the rise in crime figures was triggered by the resumption of normal travel, leading to increased people movements. Despite this, rates of serious crime still ran low in Macau.

Last year, the police also shut down 106 illegal accommodation facilities. In addition, 530 counts of people were believed to have worked illegally, which equated to 130 cases for investigation. Meanwhile, 81 cases were identified to involve illegal driver-workers.