Immigration and Customs Academies host open days for National Security Education Day

Hong Kong’s frontline border-control agencies opened their training campuses to the public on 18 April 2026 to mark National Security Education Day. The Immigration Service Institute of Training & Development (ISITD) in Castle Peak and the Hong Kong Customs College in Chek Lap Kok welcomed thousands of residents, giving them a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how officers are groomed to protect the city’s highly mobile economy and its 300-million-plus annual passenger movements. Visitors were shown smart-border technologies such as mobile e-Channels, passport authentication systems and contraband-detection scanners, while trainees staged drill demonstrations simulating passenger profiling, visa screening and customs inspections. Interactive booths allowed school groups to try coding an automated clearance gate and to learn how advance-passenger-information data helps identify high-risk travellers before they board flights to Hong Kong. Officials used the occasion to underline the link between national security and smooth cross-border flows. Briefings highlighted the city’s phased rollout of the Advance Passenger Information (API) regime and the expansion of contact-less e-Channel enrolment for frequent visitors earlier this year. Immigration officers explained that stronger pre-arrival vetting reduces bottlenecks for legitimate business travellers while keeping undesirables out. For corporates, the open-day message is clear: regulatory scrutiny at Hong Kong control points is intensifying, but automation should shorten queues for compliant passengers. Mobility managers were advised to audit staff travel data against new API fields and to budget extra time for first-time travellers whose biometrics are not yet captured in the system. Companies planning cross-border events this summer should keep an eye on forthcoming e-Channel enrolment drives that may allow overseas executives to fast-track immigration formalities.