Groups of disabled beggars more commonly seen on the streets of mainland China are plying their trade on the streets of Hong Kong over the festive Chinese New Year holiday, residents told RFA.
Footage of the beggars, some of whom have visible disabilities and adopt poses of supplication to convince passersby to donate cash, has showed them on the pavements in the city's Kowloon district, not far from the old airport.
One youth remains in a kneeling position, silent, still wearing his backpack, with papers spread carefully on the ground in front of him asking for help because his family were involved in a car accident.
A man with one leg and crutch is shown prostrating himself before passersby, with a plastic container in front of him, while an elderly disabled man waves a tin in the hope of collecting money.
One of the disabled people begging in the area told RFA he was in the city on a tourism permit, which mainland residents need to clear Hong Kong's separate immigration controls that have remained in place since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
"I am here for tourism, and to visit friends," the man said. "I am just here for two or three days, then I go back."
"They take it in turns, change shifts," a security guard of a nearby residential building in Kowloon's To Kwa Wan neighborhood told RFA. "They say that they are each other's friends or relatives, who have told the others to come to Hong Kong too."
It was unclear whether any of those begging in the street were indeed related, or whether they were being organized by a third party.
Easier to enter Hong Kong
Under Hong Kong's 1977 Summary Offences Ordinance, begging on the street carries a maximum jail term of 12 months.
But Hong Kong media have reported a surge in mainland Chinese begging in the city since changes to the visa system made it easier for people to enter the city on a tourist permit in 2003.
Lawmaker Helena Wong said that any suspected organized begging should be reported to the police.
"If you suspect that they are being organized to come to Hong Kong, and working in shifts, you can alert the police and they will follow it up," she said. "The security guards in residential buildings don't have the power to implement the law. All they can do is call the traffic police, who can collect evidence."
She added: "It is important to confirm whether or not they came to Hong Kong especially to beg ... this should be carried out by the police."
In 2014, Hong Kong's Cable TV followed a group of mainland Chinese beggars, reporting that they were recruited by organizers via social media to come and beg in Hong Kong.
Their "boss" arranged their travel permits and dictated who got to beg where, and at what time, the station reported.
Tensions between Hong Kong residents and their compatriots across the internal immigration border in mainland China began to escalate after tourist permits began to be granted to individuals rather than tour groups in 2003.
In February 2013, the city's government imposed controls on the number of cans of infant milk formula individuals could take out of the city after widespread bulk-buying of infant formula by cross-border visitors sparked chaos and public protests.
Reported by Wo Miu and Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.