Call for visa crackdown on bogus Buddhist monks
Police want immigration to crack down on bogus Buddhist monks working as beggars in the same way that they deal with prostitutes
Mainland beggars masquerading as Buddhist monks should be treated the same as prostitutes, and the immigration authorities should crack down on the practice, according to police.
One police source familiar with a rising trend of bogus Buddhist monks visiting Hong Kong as "professional beggars" said they may be violating their three-month visitor visas.
Over the past 12 months, the city had seen a major increase in the number of people clad in monks' robes and begging in Central, Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui, the source said. The police arrest people for begging, particularly in Central. But unlike prostitutes, whose work is illegal because they enter Hong Kong on tourist visas, according to the Immigration Department, begging does not constitute working.
Stronger penalties would deter bogus monks from coming to the city, the source said, adding that the police wanted a change in immigration laws.
"If these bogus Buddhist monks come here specifically to beg on a three-month tourist visa, why isn't this a breach of their conditions of stay?
"If you come to Hong Kong as a mainland prostitute on a tourist visa, you will be arrested by police for breaching your conditions of stay. Why are these bogus monks not treated the same?"
On Friday night, one man dressed like a Buddhist monk in Lan Kwai Fong tried to sell a wooden beaded bracelet to the . The bracelets - which he said could bring blessings - cost HK$100 each.