(5) Information Services Department, using all forms of the media, has been publicising Government's measures generally and drawing attention to incidents illustrating the effectiveness of those measures. It has arranged for messages to be broadcast from loudspeakers to arrested illegal immigrants in San Uk Ling Holding Centre awaiting repatriation to China.
(6) Government Departments generally have been refusing services
to persons without proof of identity. In the event, there have been 535 occasions when such proof has not been produced 125 of them reported by Fire Services and Ambulance Command (where there may be good reasons for the car ds not being available); 150 from Medical Department (mostly long standing mental patients); 120 from Prisons Department (mostly inmates who are not yet due for release); and about 140 miscellaneous cases reported on the hot line. The inference must be either that illegal immigrants or those not carrying a form of identity have been deterred from seeking Government assistance or that there are very few around.
(7) Liaison Committees These have been convened at district level
by City District Officers in the urban area and by District Officers in the New Territories. Their objectives are to exchange information obtained by Government departments concerning the emergence of a "submerged society" of illegal immigrants after CHAMPION; and to exchange information on public reaction to CHAMPION generally. The Committees comprise district representatives of the Police, Labour and other major depart- ments, and their reports are regularly channelled through Home Affairs Branch to the CHAMPION Operations Group.
(8) HM Forces have maintained the level of their normal pre-
CHAMPION operation activities.
The Response in China
4
Most information on this subject has come from interviews of illegal immigrants arrested on arrival. In general, those living near the border admit to having been aware of Hong Kong's new policy either through Hong Kong and Chinese media reports or by word of mouth and despite this have decided to take the risk of coming to Hong Kong. Those outside the range of Hong Kong radio and TV (e.g. in Haifeng County - see paragraph 5 below) claimed generally to be unaware of the new policy. Interviews so far suggest that most of those arrested will not try to enter again now that they are aware of Hong Kong's new measures. In addition, there has been some factual coverage of CHAMPION in the Guangdong press, and there is evidence of a strengthening of Chinese patrols at railway stations at road blocks, and on the border. That the number of observed arrests has declined since CHAMPION accords with the reduced numbers now trying to escape.
CONFIDENTIAL
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