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As slight by Jument doVERING SECRET
Mr Murray
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PS/Lord Goronwy-Robert
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HONG KONG: ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION FROM CHINA
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1. When Lord Goronwy-Roberts met Mr John Roper MP and Colonel Montgomery of the Anti-Slavery Society on 7 December, they raised the possibility of legal representation being made available to illegal immigrants into Hong Kong before repatriation to China. In his Roberts undertook to look into
to the Governor for his views. from purely legal assistance to since legal assistance is unlikely to be of much benefit in view of the Hong Kong's Court ruling that no writ of habeus corpus could be granted in such cases as the person concerned is not legally in Hong Kong.
letters of 4 January Lord Goronwy-
this and I subsequently wrote
In my letter I extended the idea that of a "friend in Court"
2. Mr Davies, the Secretary for Security, has now replied to my letter putting forward a number of reasons why, in the view of the Hong Kong Government, such a scheme would be impracticable. I accept that there is a good deal of justification in refusing to agree to this proposal in view of the practical difficulties alone. More important, however, is the likely reaction from China to any change in our approach. I agree with Mr Davies that, if we seem to be taking a "soft" approach, the Chinese might think we were going back on the 1974 understanding on repatriation and could retaliate by making it much easier for would-be immigrants to leave the country legally. Such retaliation could have a serious effect on Hong Kong's economy which is already being stretched by the current level of legal
immigration.
3. I do not believe, however, that this is a point which we should explain in detail to Mr Roper or Colonel Montgomery and would prefer that we simply state that the practical problems are sufficient to negate any minor advantage which might be gained by illegal immigrants.
COVERING SECRET