The Macau authorities have been urged by several local lawmakers to speed up criminal trials and tighten rules that allow foreigners accused of crimes such as fraud to have bail and stay in the territory pending court hearings.
Two brutal murders involving foreigners in Macau have cast the spotlight on the city’s loose laws that allow the frequent release of illegal immigrants and crime suspects back onto the streets.
A 31-year-old Korean man, whose body was found hanging from a tree on 12th January, had committed six criminal offences in the city before allegedly being murdered, but each time he was arrested he was only handed a form of unconditional bail known locally as a “streetwalking paper”.
The day before the discovery of the Korean’s corpse, a Vietnamese illegal worker was beaten and stabbed to death allegedly by 10 of his fellow countrymen, most of whom were reportedly illegal immigrants or holders of “streetwalking papers”.
One of the attackers was drowned two days later when he tried to swim along Macau’s eastern coastline into the city of Zhuhai on the Chinese Mainland.
Macau police, who revealed details of the case on Friday, said the murder was related to competition for jobs among illegal Vietnamese workers. Seven Vietnamese men have been arrested on murder charges.
Legislator Au Kam-san said a massive backlog of cases at Macau courts was partially responsible for the abuse of “streetwalking papers”.
Some 91,000 people overstayed their visas in Macau in the first half of last year, up more than 100 percent on the same period in 2008, in the city of half a million residents.
Macau’s first detention centre for illegal immigrants was opened in November last year, but it accommodates only 32 detainees.
Another detention centre, large enough for 164 detainees, is under construction and may go into use later this year. Hong said such detention centres would help turn away potential illegal immigrants and overseas criminals.
