TNAG-0497-FCO40-562-Deportation-of-foreign-nationals-from-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 104

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

COPY

Sackville Group, Canada 4 P. O. Box 1171, c/o Adams, Sackville, New Brunswick Canada

9 August, 1974.

H.E. The Ambassador,

Her Britannic Majesty's Embassy to Vietnam,

25 Dai Lo Thong Nhut,

P.0. Box No. 1,

Saigon,

Republic of Vietnam.

Your Excellency,

I hope you will consider it appropriate for me to write to you on the subject of the 118 South Vietnamese deported to the Republic of Vietnam from Hong Kong. I am not only a member of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL but a British-subject who must naturally feel some responsibility for the occurrence, although I know of course that the Hong Kong government is responsible for its own immigration laws.

I am aware that you have been good enough, quite recently, to call upon the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Vietnam to enquire about conflicting reports of treatment of these deported men, women and children. I know that you were assured that they would be treated fairly, and I have read in an English paper a letter to the same effect from Mr. Pham Dang Lam, the Viet- namese ambassador. He explains that those going to the Re-education Centre in Con Son Island are sent there in their own interest. There they can await trial in serenity'. But although there are Australian reports that some of the sick and old people have been released, there is also news that fourteen of those being re-educated in Con Son Island are dead, including a little girl and a boy; allegedly they have died of illness and injuries.

The Canadian newspapers have made this story of the 118 deportees into front page news; nothing could be more degrading and more harmful than this to the dignity of Great Britain. In the final analysis, surely the British Government has responsibility for what is done by Hong kong. Yet it seems from reports that the refugees were sent off to S. Vietnam while the British and Australians-were being told they were still in the Crown Colony. While appreciating what you have already done, I do appeal to you to offer what help you can to these people.

Yours sincerely, Elizabeth Boyle

(Mrs. J.W. Boyle)

Amnesty International is an independent, non-governmental organisation which has consultative status with the United Nations and the Council of Europe It endeavours to ensure the right for everyone to hold and express his beliefs. Amnesty International works, irrespective of political considerations, for the release of men and women who are in prison because of their beliefs, or their ethnic origin, colour or language, provided they have neither used nor advocated violence.

*and the Organisation of American States