TNAG-0802-FCO40-1006-Immigration-from-China-to-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 266

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The figure of illegal immigrants interviewed and accepted as having evaded controls since 30 November 1974 is 19,631. The up-to-date ratio of interceptions against evasions is 1:3.79. (Allowing a six months surfacing lag of the evaders, the running ratio as at 30 November 1977 is now 1:4.3).

Macao

11.

18 illegal immigrants were referred to this department by the Marine Police during the month. 15 were repatriated to Macao and the remaining 3 are still being processed. In addition, 5 cases where the illegal immigrants were arrested in previous months were finalized in May. 3 were removed to Macao and the other 2 were allowed to stay.

12.

On 30 May, 15 illegal immigrants were intercepted by the Marine Police on board a non-HK registered motorized fishing junk off Round Island. Two snakeheads were later arrested and remanded until 6 June for trial. 13 of the illegal immigrants were repatriated to Macao in May and the remaining 2 were held to act as Crown witnesses. An application for forfeiture of the junk is also under process.

13.

Since November 1975, the total of illegal immigrants interviewed and accepted as having entered from Macao is 1,979. Of these 260 were arrested, 1,415 surfaced through ROP claiming illegal entry from Macao and 304 surfaced through ROP falsely claiming illegal entry from elsewhere.

Registration of illegals

14.

During May 1,354 persons (compared with 972 last month) registered with the Registration of Persons Office, claiming to have entered Hong Kong illegally from various sources. The figure includes 1,237 persons (compared with 876 last month) claiming to have come from China and 52 (compared with 43 last month) from Macao.

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Since 1962, the Registration of Persons Office has registered a total of 325,893 persons who claimed to have entered Hong Kong illegally from various sources, primarily China. The total since January 1970 is 112, 138 of whom 94, 215 claimed to have come from China and 6,024 from Macao. The true figure of illegal immigrants from China is somewhat lower and the true figure of Macao somewhat higher, because of attempts to conceal the true place of origin on registration to avoid repatriation. Separate statistics of confirmed place of origin are shown in para 10 for China, and para 13 for Macao.

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