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PA
DaciR
2873
CONFIDENTIAL
INWARD TELEGRAM
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (The Secretary of State)
FROM HONG KONG (Sir D. Trench)
11
Cypher
D. 21st March 1967 R. 21 st
11
11
11.10 hrs.
IMMEDIATE
CONFIDENTIAL
No.379
(G)
Coty on HWA 18/27
Addressed to Peking No.1 31
Repeated
39
RECEIVED IN ARCHIVES No. 53
22 MANDO
HWAY/1
(Commonwealth Office please pass)
Commonwealth Office
Your telegram No.297 to Foreign Office.
Illegal Immigrants.
Our policy is to consider each case on its merits.
If an illegal immigrant who is apprehended in Hong Kong in the course of entering the colony from China
(a) makes a valid claim for political asylum;
(b) was born in Hong Kong;
(c)
(a)
has close relatives (e.g. a wife with a husband in the colony, or minors with parents living in Hong Kong) or
where there are humanitarian factors to be taken into account, (e.g. where the immigrant is suffering from serious illness or disablement)
he will normally be permitted to remain in Hong Kong.
2. Where no such considerations apply (i.e. in the great majority of cases), the policy is to repatriate the immigrant to China. In practice, if the immigrant when taken to the border at Lo Wu for repatriation flatly refuses to cross the frontier, he is taken back into custody but subsequently presented again at the border on a second and sometimes a third occasion. If he then still refuses to leave he is released in the colony. No one has ever yet been repatriated by force; until very recently (cf. our telegram No.286 to C.0.) the Chinese frontier authorities have refused to accept anyone who was not prepared to cross the bridge voluntarily.
3. On the question of political asylum, our policy is governed by a statement by the Colonial Secretary in the House of Commons on 18th February 1964 to the effect that admission to Hong Kong has never been refused to persons seeking entry under circumstances covered by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, i.e. persons seeking asylum from persecution. In practice we have adopted the view that a
CONFIDENTIAL
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