The government-appointed Taipa and Coloane Community Service Consultative Council hosted yesterday a closed-door meeting with representatives of the Macau Public Security Forces (FSM) and the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) concerning the city’s long-running problem of illegal inns, and Choi Seng Hong and Wong Leong Kuan, deputy conveners of the council, said after the meeting that the Public Security Police (PSP) and MGTO sealed 82 flats in the special administrative region (peninsula, Taipa, Cotai, Coloane) suspected of providing illegal accommodation services between January and October.
Law No.3/2022, which amended Law No.3/2010, on the “Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation”, has been in effect since April last year.
Both Choi and Wong made the remarks during a press briefing after the closed-door meeting at the Islands District Public Services Centre in Coloane’s Seac Pai Van.
Both talked to the media after the meeting.
In terms of the Islands Police Department, an FSM commissioner was quoted by Choi as pointing out that the number of illegal inns investigated by the Public Security Police in Taipa, Cotai and Coloane decreased from 153 for the whole of 2019 to seven only in the first 10 months of this year, adding that “no signs of deterioration of the situation have been found”.
Choi, Wong and fellow member Leong Chon Kit said that, according to the FSM and MGTO representatives, the government has been carrying out both “pro-active” and “reactive” measures against illegal inns, with the former including putting up posters highlighting the hotline and platform for the public to report such illegal activity in residential buildings and shops, while the latter refers to the action carried out by the police after they had received relevant reports.
Taipa and Coloane Community Service Consultative Council member Leong Chon Kit (left) and the government-appointed council’s deputy conveners Choi Seng Hong (right) and Wong Leong Kuan pose during yesterday’s press briefing after the regular closed-door meeting, at the Islands District Public Services Centre in Coloane’s Seac Pai Van estate. – Photo: Yuki Lei
