A Hong Kong man has been jailed for a year after entering into a bogus marriage with a mainland woman so she could have her baby in Hong Kong.
Suspicions were aroused in Hong Kong’s Immigration Department after a 34-year-old man married the pregnant woman on June 6 last year, following which she attempted to enter the territory claiming she was planning to attend an antenatal check up and visit the defendant. She was, however, refused permission to land.
Under caution, the man admitted that he had been paid HKD15,000 by a middle man to marry the woman so she could obtain a booking to have her child at a private hospital in Hong Kong.
He also admitted lying to authorities when he claimed to have known the woman for several years and to have been in an intimate relationship with her for a year and a half.
An Immigration Department spokesman said: “The Immigration Department is concerned about the situation of non-local pregnant women seeking to give birth in Hong Kong by illegal means. While great efforts are made to intercept non-local pregnant women without a confinement booking at the control points, vigorous enforcement actions have also been taken to combat related immigration offences committed by non-local pregnant women and their abettors.”
Photo: Wikimedia
