Hong Kong - A Chinese man was jailed Wednesday for going
through a bogus marriage to a Hong Kong woman to enable him to work
in the wealthy former British colony.
Zhou Renping, 44, paid 50,000 yuan (6,450 US dollars) to marry a
Hong Kong woman last year and was arrested at the border when he
arrived in the territory on January 28, claiming he was visiting her.
At a hearing in Hong Kong's Shatin court Wednesday, Zhou pleaded
guilty to conspiracy to defraud and making false representations to
immigration officers. He was jailed for 15 months.
His conviction followed a series of recent cases in which men from
mainland China have been arrested after paying to marry Hong Kong
women for residency rights.
In early February, a 21-year-old man who paid more than 5,000 US
dollars to a middleman to arrange such a bogus marriage was jailed
for 18 months.
In January, a migrant Chinese worker was jailed for 30 months
after paying nearly 4,000 US dollars for a bogus marriage to allow
him to work in Hong Kong.
After Wednesday's hearing, an immigration department spokesman
said the agency was 'concerned with non-Hong Kong residents obtaining
the right to stay in Hong Kong by means of bogus marriages.'
'A special task force has been set up to gather intelligence
through various avenues, and a thorough investigation will be
conducted once evidence comes to light,' he said. 'If there is enough
evidence, the department will prosecute the offenders.'
The maximum jail term for a bogus marriage is 14 years in Hong
Kong, which was a British colony for 156 years before reverting to
Chinese rule in 1997.
The city is currently also taking action to stop pregnant women
sneaking across the border from China to Hong Kong to give birth so
their children would qualify for residency.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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