Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam yesterday said that Hong Kong is bound by international law to provide free medical treatment to illegal immigrants even if they infringe the law deliberately to get free treatment in prison.

Lam was speaking at a Legislative Council meeting.

The government would not rule out the possibility that some illegal entrants had committed crimes in Hong Kong to receive free medical treatment in prisons, he said.

"However, Hong Kong is ruled by law and has to comply with international humanitarian standard and regulation," he said.

Hong Kong had been complying with the United Nations principle for years, he explained.

A UN resolution passed in 1988 stated that penal institutions should offer free medical care to the imprisoned regardless of their place of origin, he said.

Both local and illegal entrants are entitled to free medical service in Hong Kong's penal institutions.

He said the government had neither recorded how much money had been spent on treating sick illegal entrants and nor would it do so in future.

The government would not also ask illegal immigrants in jail to pay for their medical fees, he added.

Lam stressed that current medical expenditure is sufficient to treat all inmates and the government had not seen a clear rising trend in expenditure.

In the past three years, the average annual medical expenditure for the provision of inmates' medical services remained at HK$150 million.

The average bed occupancy rate in penal institutions from 2004 to October 2007 had remained close to 90 percent, he said.

More than 440 staff at Correctional Services Department are taking care of inmates with medical needs.

Inmates are mainly treated in hospitals for drug abuse, mental illness and upper respiratory tract infection.

From 2005 to October 2007, 5 percent of the jailed 5,300 illegal entrants abused drugs.

Lam also mentioned that Hong Kong had no repatriation agreements with the mainland or Vietnam for inmates sentenced in Hong Kong.

He said from 2006 to October this year 75 percent of illegal entrants were from the mainland and Vietnam.

The government had proposed to both governments to introduce repatriation arrangement but there has been no progress as yet, he said.

(HK Edition 11/15/2007 page6)