5.
-2-
The Hong Kong Government are only too well aware that some
Hong Kong residents are members of syndicates organising the
traffic in refugees. The police keep a close watch on those
suspected of involvement and take action as soon as they have
evidence that the law is being broken. The Hong Kong Government
believe that in two instances, involving the vessels "Lucky
Dragon" and "Tailiat", their advance knowledge enabled them to
frustrate planned refugee voyages. But these syndicates also
have connections with Macau, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.
As far as possible, the Hong Kong Government liaise with the
authorities in the other bases of operation (particularly Singapore),
but it is inevitably difficult to take effective action against
highly sophisticated operators, functioning across several
national boundaries.
6. A good deal of the money used to finance the refugee voyages
appears to originate in Hong Kong. But there is not a great deal
that the Hong Kong Government can do to stop this. There is, and
can be, no law to stop money being paid into bank accounts in
Hong Kong for favours received in other countries. Nor can the
Hong Kong Government prevent money being transferred from Hong
Kong to Vietnam, not only because of the absence of exchange
controls in Hong Kong but also because most of the money is
believed to be sent quite legitimately by people in Hong Kong
to relatives in Vietnam who need it to buy the basic necessities
of life. There is no way of distinguishing between money sent
for this purpose and money sent to finance refugee voyages.
28 June 1979 cc SEAD
UND
R JT McLaren
Hong Kong and General Department