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We
some other demonstrative way. In deporting illegal immigrants, the authorities are entitled to use reasonable force, but, of course, in practice it can be very difficult to judge in particular circumstances what is reasonable. could well find ourselves in real difficulty, if things got rough, defending our treatment of these people under Articles 7 and 10 of the Covenant. If a State party to the Covenant decided to take us to the Human Rights Committee under Article 41 of the Covenant, it would be likely to throw the book at us and we would have to be ready to defend our behaviour, in effect, in individual cases of alleged ill
With women and little children this could be almost impossible and would be compounded by the effort we have made to prevent publicity and photography and, in particular, in keeping UNHCR out (see paragraph 2 of Hong Kong telno 3948). We must also bear in mind that we have recently put in a report to the Human Rights Committee upon which we can expect to be examined next year. If the repatriation operation were to turn sour, we would be certain to face close questioning at that time.
treatment.
4. I remain at the Department's disposal to discuss this further if they wish to do so.
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Wand
D M Edwards