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DTE Roberts Esq CBE QC JP
Colonial Secretary
HONG KONG
Your reference
Our reference HKK 14/5
Date 28 January 1974
Dear Denso,
DEPORTATION OF LEUNG PAK-KIN
1.
We were most grateful for your helpful response in this case.
I enclose for your records a copy of the letter which Mr Blaker sent to Mrs Judith Hart MP informing her of the outcome. I also wrote to Amnesty to tell them of the Governor's decision. I enclose a copy of their reply.
2. Now that the dust has settled, however, there are one or two points which it might be as well to discuss in general terms now. This seems all the more relevant in the light of Saigon telegram no 2 to you of 17 January, quoting an official Government News Agency report that 48 young Vietnamese of Chinese origin had been discovered in the hold of a ship on route from Saigon to Hong Kong. Leung's case is presumably not the first where a deportee has disliked his proposed destination. Your telegram no 1494 of
22 December 1973 also refers to "many hundreds of illegal immigrants" whom you have to remove each year. It would be helpful if you could let us know what has been happening up to now in the case of deportations to South Vietnam and elsewhere, whether anyone has tried to protest, and what you have done about it.
3. For the future the general point of principle is that, at least in the UK, and in deportation as distinct from extradition cases, we regard the wishes of the individual as being relevant, provided that the country which is his preferred destination is willing to receive him. This was pointed up by the two cases referred to in our telegram no 29.
4. It follows that the exact degree of risk to Leung in Vietnam, while it is relevant, would not be decisive in the UK. It is clear that he would be at some risk, that he did not want to go to Vietnam, and that Taiwan was willing to receive him. In the UK this would be enough. In the case of the Pakistani, Miss Sultana,
/she would have
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