CONFIDENTIAL
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION OF CHILDREN
UNDER THE AGE OF 14
SCR 3/2091/81
Background
All illegal immigrants, irrespective of age, who are caught trying to enter Hong Kong from China, are returned to
China.
2.
The Hong Kong Government's stated policy is also to return
to China all illegal immigrants who surface after they have entered Hong Kong. But in practice, for humanitarian reasons, HKG has allowed children under the age of 14 who come to notice after they have entered Hong Kong to stay provided that their mother is in Hong Kong.
3.
Although HKG has not publicized this practice, racketeers
appear to have become aware of it. They charge around HK$7,000 to HK$10,000 a head to smuggle children into Hong Kong. During 1982, the average number of children seeking permission to stay in Hong Kong from the Immigration Department doubled in the
second five months of 1982 compared with the first five months.
The monthly increase for the year so far has been from 93 in
January to 219 in November.
4.
The Security Forces are making strenuous efforts to prevent the illegal entry of children and to take action against
the syndicates involved. But as children under the age of 15 in Hong Kong are not required to carry identity cards and as
the only possible witnesses against the syndicates are the
children themselves, they are encountering considerable
difficulties.
5.
The probability is that many of the illegal immigrants
who entered Hong Kong before the abolition of the "reached base"
policy (about 200,000 in 1978/80) deliberately left their children
behind. The potential for illegal immigration of children is
further increased by the fact that the documentation issued by
the Chinese authorities is quite inadequate to determine whether
or not a child really is the offspring of the alleged parent in
Hong Kong.
CONFIDENTIAL