Hong Kong police arrest suspected ringleader, 6 others over alleged racket profiting from food vouchers for asylum seekers

Police on Saturday said a 68-year-old female suspect, who was believed to be the ringleader, was detained at the arrival hall of the West Kowloon high-speed rail terminus on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud.

The West Kowloon regional crime unit launched an investigation after the International Social Service Hong Kong Branch (ISS-HK), an NGO delegated by welfare authorities to provide food coupons to asylum seekers, filed a police report on Monday.

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Hong Kong does not grant asylum. But it offers non-refoulement, an assurance that asylum seekers will not be sent back to a country where they face the risk of persecution or torture.

Each non-refoulement claimant is given food coupons worth HK$1,200 every month, but they can only be used at designated supermarkets.

Six suspects – a woman, 50, three men, aged 42 to 45, who worked at a supermarket and a pharmacy, and two other men – were arrested in Yau Tsim Mong district on Wednesday on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and handling stolen goods.

The police force said it did not rule out further arrests.

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Investigators found the syndicate bought coupons from claimants at 60 per cent of their face value with cash, bought food from supermarkets, and resold the products to pharmacies in Jordan and other customers at 30 per cent off to make a profit.

Syndicate members were also found to have used a nearby flat as a storeroom.

In Wednesday’s operation, police also raided a pharmacy, a supermarket and the storeroom in Jordan, and seized cash worth HK$130,000, bags of rice, soft drinks and peanut oil. The goods were worth HK$14,000.

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The Social Welfare Department expressed concern over the incident and said it would deal with the matter seriously in accordance with established procedures if there was a breach of conditions for the use of humanitarian aid. As the police investigation was ongoing, the department declined to comment further.

ISS-HK said it had taken various measures to monitor the use of the food coupons, including reviewing transaction records every month to identify anything suspicious including, for example, bulk purchases in more-than-normal amounts.