4. It would also be wrong to confuse the movement of illegal immigrants with those of PRC nationals travelling legitimately to other countries and transiting Hong Kong. Last year, there were 100,000 legitimate travellers and this number is likely
to increase as China's economy opens up further and commercial
exchanges with Europe continue to develop.
5. Information available to the Hong Kong authorities indicates that illegal immigrants from China bound for Europe prefer to travel overland through the former Soviet Union. This route avoids the sort of immigration controls which are
applied in Hong Kong.
10776/93
?
WF/lb
EN