TNAG-0907-FCO40-1117-Immigration-from-China-to-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 57

From The Minister of State

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SWIA 2AH

Hashr 1979

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51 3 NOV 1979

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

PA

REC Action Tove

No

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ZZLA

67

Dan Dich

Thank you for your letter of 8 November enclosing one from your constituent, Mr Dick Murray, concerning the Hong Kong Government's policy of repatriating illegal immigrants from

China

The present policy dates from 1974, when there was a sharp increase in the rate at which people were arriving both legally and illegally in Hong Kong from China. The influx became so great that it threatened to undermine the Government's programme for improving the social services and the general standard of living of the population as a whole. An informal understanding was therefore reached with the Chinese authorities, who agreed to restrict the numbers of people who were allowed to cross the border legally from China. At the same time, the Hong Kong Government decided to reintroduce the policy, suspended during the Cultural Revolution, of returning to China any would-be immigrants caught trying to enter Hong Kong illegally. At that time these two measures succeeded in reducing the flow of immigrants to manageable proportions.

But

The Hong Kong Government have always taken great care to apply the repatriation policy as humanely as possible. Where there are special humanitarian or other reasons for allowing a particular person to stay, he is not repatriated. There has never been any question of returning genuine political rèfugees to China. the great majority of those who seek to enter Hong Kong illegally from China are not refugees in the accepted sense of people fleeing from persecution. They are simply people, often from poor rural areas, who are attracted by the prospect of better opportunities and a higher material standard of living in Hong Kong.

All the evidence available to us, including firsthand accounts of people who, having been repatriated on one or more occasions, are caught making further attempts to enter Hong Kong illegally, confirms that those who are returned do not receive unduly harsh treatment. The Chinese authorities generally regard an attempt to leave China illegally as a civil misdemeanour rather than a criminal offence. There is therefore no comparison with the treatment given by the Russians to those who were repatriated to the Soviet Union in 1945.

Lt Col R

Crawshaw MP

House of Commons LONDON SW1A OAA

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