TNAG-0906-FCO40-1116-Immigration-from-China-to-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 120

TREAT AS CONFIDENTIAL

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LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION TO HONG KONG

when I called on you on 5 July we discussed the problem of the rate of entry into Hong Kong of both legal and 11lege immigrants into Hong Kong. At that time I expressed our concern at the fact that legal immigration figures had ceased to decline although illegal figuren had dropped to

reasonably low level

I am sorry to note on my return that since then the daily average figures for legal entrants has crapt back up to 175 per day in August from 159 in dul

48 really

too high. I hope the earlier downward trend can be re-established, in accordance with your earlier assurances and that we can soon hope to see daily figures of well below 100.

Even more alarmingly, the number of illegal immigranta repatriated has come back up to over 200 per day over the last two weeks. The countermeasures taken in July proved highly effective in bringing numbers down to manageable levels, and I hope these can be quickly re-established to control this flow which both sides agree should be stopped.

There has also been a growing number of Chinese passport holders, who have acquired their exit permite to leave China on the basis of an expressed intention to travel to another country, who have become an addition to Hong Kong's burden since they had not acquired visas for their stated

country

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