සමාජය හා සාමයික කේන්ද්රය
CENTRE FOR SOCIETY AND RELIGION
சமூக - சமய நடுநிலையம்
2
1212112
281 Deans Road, Colombo 10,
Sri Lanka.
Tal: 95425
2- Febrüaury',
His Excellency
Sir Murray Mac Lehose
Governor
Hong Kong
Your Excellency:
We have come to understand that Ms Christine Vertucci, who is the co-director of the Asian Monitor Resource Centre based in Hong Kong, has been refused an extension of her employment visa and that that refusal had been witheld from her until the last hour of the last day before her visa was to have expired, which also happened to be the last working day before the long Chinese New Year holidays. Although she had filed her application for the extension as early as 18 December the fact that she was not intimated of the refusal by the authorities to grant her this extension till the last minute gavo hor virtually no time at all to mako ovon an appeal against this order. And now she has been given a temporary visa of two weeks` within which period she has to leave the colony.
That she has been refused this extension inspite of the fact that she is said to have not committed any offence against the laws of Hong Kong is, to say the lease, tantamount to a miscarriage of justice as uphold in the UN Declaration of Human Rights of which Great Britain is also one of the signatories.
On behalf of the Centre for Society & Religion, I wish, thorefore, to urge you in your capacity as the Governor of Hong Kong and thus the representative of Her Majesty the Queen and the British Government, to subject this matter to your earnest consideration and use your powers of discretion to annul the order of Hong Kong's Immigration Department so that MWertucci would be granted an extension of her stay. Such a gesture on your part will redound to your credit and that of the British Covornmont you represent.
Copy: Centre for Praquess of Peoples.
Director: Tissa Balasuriya O, M. I.
Asst. Secretaries: Richard A. Dias
Yours truly,
Sgd: Richard Dim
Richard Dias
Assistant Secretary
Secretary: Mrs. Bernadeen Silva
Douglas T. A. de Silva
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