NEW REFUGEE PROBLEM.....3
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government has been encouraged by a significant drop in the flow of legal immigrants from China - those whom China allows to leave the country. The current daily average of immigrants crossing the bridge at Lo Wu to a new life here is around 48, which means that Peking has tacitly agreed to the limit of 50 which Britain has made it clear that teeming Hong Kong
can absorb.
The flood of legal refugees had reached uncontrollable proportions in mid- 1973, when as many as 300 a day were pouring over the border. Urgent - and again secret - negotiations were conducted between the British and Chinese during that year in Peking, London and Hong Kong.
At first, the Chinese cut the number to around 100 a day, so that the massive immigrant total of 55,500 in 1973 dropped to 32,000 in 1974. The flow continued to subside, giving 1975 a total of 25,000, and now it is down to nicely
manageable proportions.
GEMINI
END
Copyright Gemini News Service Limited (1976)
GG 6053/3
20.7.
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