NEWS RELEASE
London
23rd January, 1981
We are Chinese refugees who had risked their lives in fleeing to Hongkong from the China mainland. Because of the fact that the Hongkong Government has recently tightened its measures to repatriate Chinese refugees to China, thus committing them to the tender mercies of the Chinese Communists, an act which is in gross violation of their human rights, we have come to London to appeal to the British Govern- ment and international human rights organizations in behalf of all the Chinese refugees now in Hongkong.
(1) We
(2)
wish to protest against the present policies of the Hong- kong Government in repatriating the Chinese refugees. We ask the British Government to order the Hongkong authorities to desist from such inhuman practice, in upholding the tradition of the British people for the respect of freedom, democracy and human rights.
The Chinese refugees who flee to Hongkong from China cannot be regarded as illegal immigrants. When Hongkong was ceded by the to Britain Manchu Government/after the infamous Opium War", it was stipula- ted in the treaty that no restriction whatsoever should be imposed on Chinese people entering or leaving Hongkong. There is nothing illegal about Chinese refugees coming to Hongkong.
Is not
(3) It is true that Hongkong is small in area and therefore there are
practical difficulties in accomodating large number of refugees. However, there has been a considerable influx of Vietnamese refugees into Hongkong in recent years. And yet the Hongkong Government has not arrested and repatriated them to Vietnam. Instead these Viet- namese refugees have been allowed to settle in Hongkong. this a glaring act of discrimination against the Chinese refugees ? If it is claimed that the Vietnamese refugees could be eventually re-settled in other countries, then the same thing can be said about the Chinese as well. For there are large Chinese communities in almost all the countries in the world and there should not be too much difficulty for the Chinese refugees to find new homes in other parts of the world. Only the Hongkong Government has not directed its effort in this direction.
(4) The Hongkong Government has enforced its repatriation policy since
December 1974. Yet it has not succeeded in stemming the tide of fleeing Chinese refugees. On the contrary, the number of Chinese
In the refugees coming to Hongkong has continued to rise steadily. last two years, the number of Chinese refugees escaping into Hong- kong has broken the record of all previous years.
Even after the Hongkong Government tightened its repatriation measures in October last year, it still has not achieved its designed effect of detering and preventing the Chinese refugees from seeking freedom and survival in Hongkong. Up to the present, there are
still hundreds of people who risk their lives to come to Hongkong every day. As they cannot obtain identification cards, they are deprived of opportunities to work. As a result, they are driven to commit crimes in order to obtain a living, thus endangering the public order of the society. Furthermore, barely a month had passed after strict repatriation measures were 'enforced before two refugees, Chang Yu-fu and Lee Tze-kiang, were known to have commi- tted suicide by hanging. It should, therefore, be pointed out
that the new repatriation measures of the Hongkong Government are
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