F.CRA
Free China Relief Association
1. TSINGTAO E. ROAD, TAIPEI, TAIWAN (100)
REPUBLIC OF CHINA
CABLE ADDRESS: 2405 TAIPEI
TELEPHONE: 3212113
Dr. Ku Cheng-kang, President Mr. Fang Chih, Vice President Mr. C. C. Chen, Secretary General
But the Hongkong Government resumed its "re- patriation upon apprehension" policy on November 30, 1974. Tight sealing of the border has been accompanied by use of helicopters, high-speed patrol boats, large numbers of specially trained police and military forces, dogs and even infrared detection devices. Blocking, interception, search and arrest have taken place constantly. Press reports and disclosures by the Hongkong authorities show that 170,848 Chinese refugees reaching the colony had thus been nabbed and forcibly sent back in the six years up to September 30, 1980. Those who managed to filter through the dragnet and make their way into the colony were permitted to stay
on.
However, the Hongkong Government on October 23 this year announced the expansion of its forceful re- patriation measure to cover those unauthorized arrivals already in the Hongkong-Kowloon urban areas. Employers harboring such refugees would be severely penalized, the announcement added. This obviously contradicts the spirit of the above-mentioned UN resolution and the stipulation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that "everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. " Thus being denied of their right to seek and enjoy asylum, Chinese refugees fleeing to Hongkong are finding themselves in a dead alley in their desperate quest of survival in freedom. Furthermore, the repatriated refugees face reform through labor, imprisonment and possible death sentences. The practice goes against the glorious British tradition of freedom and democracy. Irreparable damages are being done to the spirit of humanity and justice that the free world is supposed to uphold.
It is my conviction that based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convenant of Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Relating
A voluntary agency conducting relief programs for Chinese refugees
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