HKK 18/27
46
NOTE FOR COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARY ASSOCIATION
DELEGATION TO HONG KONG
OCTOBER 1969
p.6.
Commonwealth Immigration into Hong Kong
Hitherto virtually no control has been exercised over the entry into Hong Kong of Commonwealth citizens, despite the lack of reciprocal facilities for the unconditional entry of people from Hong Kong into. other Commonwealth countries. The vast majority of Commonwealth countries, in fact, require visas or entry permits for Commonwealth citizens wishing to enter and settle in those countries.
2. There has recently been an influx into Hong Kong of unskilled persons from Commonwealth countries. These immigrants are neither visitors nor are they in possession of special skills and it is clear that they intend to make their homes in the Colony and take up unskilled employment there. Hong Kong is already one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The Hong Kong authorities have coped over many years with a chronic shortage of housing as a result of the continual influx of refugees from communist China, together with the attendant problems of providing the necessary social amenities such as education (on which Hong Kong already spends nearly 20% of its annual budget) medical and health services, water supplies and resettlement and low cost housing schemes.
3.
It is therefore not surprising that the Hong Kong Government recently decided to introduce controls over the entry into Hong Kong of Commonwealth citizens. The form of controls was outlined in a statement by the Colonial Secretary, Hong Kong, in the Legislative Council on 30 July, the text of which is as follows :
"In answering a question in this Council on the 2nd July I said that the Government had the question of immigration control under review.. This was very much the truth, and in fact the review had got to a stage where the conclusion had been reached by the Governor in Council that it was necessary to
introducé additional controls.
"It is in such matters usually undesirable for obvious reasons that an administration should give long notice of its intention to impose restrictions, and I had not intended to
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