Additional 228 staff members of the Hong Kong Immigration Department will be added at the cross-border checkpoints to deal with the surging number of people traveling in and out of Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year.

About 170 of them will be dispatched to the land check points and a 88-strong reserving force will be sent to assist check points in need during the festive period, according to sources from the Immigration Department.

About 8 million people are expected to travel in and out of Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year festive period, 15.5 percent more than last year, the Immigration Department said earlier this week.

Among them, 5.83 million will travel by land, a rise of 18.1 percent over last year's same period. Most people will travel between Feb. 4 and Feb. 17.

Over 1 million people traveled in and out of Hong Kong cross-border checkpoints in the past two days and over half of them traveled via Lo Wu checkpoint.

(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2005)