SECRET
Peking. Efforts are also being made to secure the release of Mr. Grey, Reuters' correspondent in Peking, who has been kept under house arrest there for more than a year. The Peking authorities have indicated that his position is
related to that of certain officials of the New China News
Agency in Hong Kong who are serving prison sentences there
following their conviction on charges arising out of their participation in last year's disturbances.
Illegal Immigration
22.
IMMIGRATION CONTROL AND REFUGEES
More than a million immigrants and refugees have entered Hong Kong from China since 1950. Because other countries have indicated that they will not accept
substantial numbers of Chinese immigrants and because the
refugees now constitute a substantial proportion of the
population of the Colony, the Hong Kong Government is obliged
to follow a policy of integration into the community.
Many
of the persons entering Hong Kong from China in the early
1950s could reasonably be regarded as refugees from the
Chinese Civil War or from the Communist Government. Those
now seeking entry are often either fleeing from the turmoil
of the cultural revolution or are attracted to Hong Kong by
its relative prosperity and greater economic opportunities.
23. Since 1950 the Hong Kong Government has found it
necessary to restrict entry from the mainland and the quota for legal immigration from the Kwang tung Province is fifty
per diem. Strict measures are taken against illegal immigration from China but because of the Colony's
geographical situation it is impossible to maintain complete
control. There have been recent indications that the
Chinese border authorities have tightened up their control on their side of the frontier. No attempt is made to seek out and return those who succeed in entering the Colony
undetected. But illegal immigrants who are intercepted are
returned to China in accordance with normal international
practice when enquiries have failed to reveal any good reason why they should not be so returned. The Hong Kong Government has avoided giving any public assurance of asylum
because of the relative difficulties if large numbers of would-be immigrants were to claim it. In practice, however,
/ asylum
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