Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1
Mrs M J Jackson
110 Lincoln Road
Croydon
Victoria
Australia 3136
Telephone 01-
930 8440
Your reference
Our reference
Date
219
9 August 1974
Dear Madam,
You wrote to the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary on 27 July about the 118 illegal immigrants from South Vietnam who were returned from Hong Kong on 17 June.
You are aware of the assurances given to the British and Hong Kong Governments by the South Vietnamese authorities before the group were returned. I understand that 27 of those returned (comprising women, children and old people) have now been released, and the remainder are now being held in prisons in or near Saigon.
On 30 July, following further representations made on the group's behalf by HM Ambassador in Saigon, the Vietnamese Government issued the following statement:-
"The British Ambassador called to express his Government's concern about the apparently conflicting press reports of the assurances given to the British and Hong Kong Governments about the 118 illegal immigrants repatriated from Hong Kong.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Vietnam reaffirmed to the British Ambassador in the Republic of Vietnam what he had already informed the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, Mr Hattersley: namely that the 118 illegal emigrants who had been repatriated from Hong Kong are being treated fairly and will be tried in open court in the normal way according to the laws of this country. It is not expected that these illegal emigrants would receive any exceptional punishment." Furthermore, on 7 August the Vietnamese press carried the text of a reply by the Minister of Information to a telegram from Amnesty International which is said to have alleged that 14 of the 118 had died while the group was held on Con Son Island. This reply contained the following statement:
"We can state that no case of death or injury has been reported among those detained prior to appearing in court and we can also give the assurance that none of them has been sent to the front line."
Yours faithfully,
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