CONFIDENTI AL
BACKGROUND NOTE
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION INTO HONG KONG FROM CHINA
1.
In November 1974 an agreement was reached between the Hong Kong Government and the authorities of Kwangtung province in China covering the return of illegal immigrants caught entering Hong Kong. The agreement was necessary because resources in Hong Kong were becoming dangerously over-stretched by the massive influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal: some 56,000 legal immigrants from China arrived in Hong Kong in 1973. Another 30,000 are believed to have entered illegally.
2.
The Chinese Government are said to grant exit permits to only a small proportion of those seeking them. They give priority to the old and infirm, to those with close relatives living overseas, to overseas Chinese who came to China to avoid persecution and, of course, to those travelling on official business. The Hong Kong Government generally accept as immigrants all those who are granted exit permits, but seek to contain the influx within manageable
proportions through informal arrangements. It was considered that adopting the policy of repatriation of illegal immigrants would make China more ready to control the number of legal immigrants.
3.
The new agreement had a marked effect on the numbers trying to enter Hong Kong illegally. The 1975 figure for those caught dropped by more than 80% compared to the previous year - from 7,150 to 1,173 and there was a further decrease in 1976. Figures so far this year are running at slightly above the 1975 level, but still well below 1974. The number of those caught represents however only a small proportion of those known to have entered illegally, estimated at around 20%. It is the practice of the Hong Kong Government to accept that once immigrants have evaded capture in the New Territories, they are safe from future action and will not be repatriated.
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4.
Since the repatriation policy was introduced about 4,200 people have been returned to China after being caught trying to
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