TNAG-0897-FCO40-1107-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 197

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The Court was also told that until October 1978, refugees had had to leave Vietnam "illegally" although the authorities encouraged and profited from their departure. Vietnamese officials subsequently made contact with overseas Chinese entrepreneurs so as to speed up the departures and organise them on a more systematic and profitable basis.

Kwok Wah-leung, a prosecution witness who had been granted immunity from prosecution to give evidence, admitted that he had received HK$120,000 for his part in the operation. Liaising with the Vietnamese authorities or their representatives, he arranged with a Taiwan shipping company for the Huey Fong to be made available. Kwok told the court of Kwong Shuck, alias "Uncle Kwong", who had acted as a financial coordinator for the Vietcong in Western Vietnam before the Communist takeover in the South, and who helped to arrange the refugees' passage. He spoke of meetings in a Hong Kong hotel room and at a shipping office in Taipei, and messages from "Uncle Kwong" calling for the operation to be speeded

up.

Kwok said that the money and gold to be paid by the refugees included substantial fees for the Vietnamese authorities and about HK$1.2 million for the owners of the Huey Fong, in addition to "rewards" for himself, "Uncle Kwong" and the accused. Kwok said he had seen Vietnamese security officials in Ho Chi Minh City examining and weighing gold leaf, watches and jewellery taken from the refugees before their embarkation.