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Registry
10.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret
Confidential,
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
DRAFT LETTER
Type 1 +
FROM
Mr Ennals
Telephone No. Ext.
To:-
Ian McGarry Esq Secretary Agent
Putney Labour Party
168 Upper Richmond Road
Putney
London SW15
Department
a
Jim Callaghan has asked me to thank you for your letter of 19 August enclosing a Resolution of your General Management Committee about the Government's policy on political asylum. The final paragraph of the Resolution calls for a revision of British policy, and you ask whether the Government intends to undertake such review. You suggest a-review by the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, but, in fact, the admission into the United Kingdom of a person subject to immigration control is the responsibility of the Home Secretary. A copy of your letter has therefore been passed to the Home Office who will doubtless be replying to you direct.
On the specific instances quoted in your Committee's Resolution, while I have every sympathy with the principles underlying your Committee's concern for political refugees, the group of 118 South Vietnamese were illegal immigrants to Hong Kong rather than political refugees. Moreover, they were only returned to Saigon after the Vietnamese Government had given assurances that nothing serious would happen to members of the group who were victims of the syndicate which had smuggled them out of Vietnam, and that cases of violation of Vietnam's immigration/emigration laws would be tried in open court and would not be harshly
bunished.
After the 118 had been repatriated, it was found that ne member, who had given a false name in Hong Kong, had previously been condemned to death on smuggling
harges. He has since been re-tried and sentenced, Instead, to life imprisonment. About 29 of the
emaining 117 (comprising women, children and old people) Have now been released, and the remainder are being
/held
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