The Director of Immigration on Monday said he is confident that Hong Kong’s border checkpoints have enough capacity to handle an influx of tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Border crossings won’t operate beyond the usual hours during the period.

At a year-end press conference, Benson Kwok said he expects 7.3 million land border crossings during the eight-day holiday.

“Our border capacity is enough to handle the large crowds of tourists. But of course we hope the travellers will arrive or depart Hong Kong out of the peak periods, so that they don’t waste too much time at the control points,” he said.

Kwok also said there were a total of 298 million inbound and outbound trips last year, 40 percent up from 2023 and close to pre-pandemic levels.

On 10 Hongkongers held prisoner in Southeast Asia and forced to take part in scams, Kwok said the department will continue to assist security officials in trying to get them released.

“There are quite a lot of challenges but the Immigration Department is supporting the special team to provide assistance to the assistance seekers,” he said.

“We sincerely hope that our special team can help them to come back to Hong Kong in the very very near future, and even to enjoy Chinese New Year with their family members.”

Separately, Kwok said children aged seven or above with an SAR passport and permanent Hong Kong identity card will soon be able to use e-channels at control points.

The immigration chief said he expects around 200,000 children will benefit from the new measure.