TNAG-1090-FCO40-1340-Illegal-immigration-from-China-to-Hong-Kong-of-refugees-orig-1981 — Page 90

人民入境事務處

香港德輔道中 四 號

Appendix A

IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT,

INTERNATIONAL BUILDING.

141. DES VOEUX ROAD CENTRAL.

HONG KONG,

國際大廈

#FLOOR 29th

Vietnamese Refugee Division

E.119

IMMIGRATION HONG KONG

#G

TEL: 5-456065

電報掛號 TELEGRAMS:

專用電訊號碼TELEX: 75656

*** IN REPLY PLEASE QUOTE THIS REF.:

Your Ref.: AD/030

4

7 January 1981

7) in SD/GEN/20/123

9) in SD/GEN/20/145

(8) in SD/GEN/20/78

Mr. Jacques Terlin

Charge de Mission

United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees

Block AA-3rd Floor

Victoria Barracks

Hong Kong

Dear

Jacques,

Thank you for your letter of 5 January 1981.

The policy regarding detainees who attempted to enter Hong Kong by posing as Vietnamese refugees, but who are believed to have been residents of China, is unchanged. The case of every detainee was consi- dered at the time when 357 detainees were released in September 1980 and for the reasons which have been discussed on several occasions here and in Geneva, no further such exceptions will be made except in the most compelling compassionate circumstances. Those detained are not believed to be refugees; they have no right to enter Hong Kong for any purpose; their proper course is, therefore, to pursue any claim for entry to another territory after their return to their country of resi- dence; and I understand the UNHCR is prepared to assist in this way Vietnamese who are settled in China.

I note also that 655 of the 716 detainees released to the care of the UNHCR in 1980 have not yet been resettled and that all but one of those who have left Hong Kong did so within the quota of the relevant country of resettlement, thus depriving an equivalent number of genuine refugees of the opportunity of reset- tlement. I would add that all of those released who claimed to have close relatives in the USA were trans- ferred to the care of the UNHCR after I received per- sonal assurances from your Legal Officer that onward entry to the USA was guaranteed. I have since learned from the U.S. Consular Officers that entry to the USA was not guaranteed; that they were unaware of the con- cessions being sought in their name; that, had they indeed been consulted, they would have asked for the release of only one Vietnamese on the list; and that the USA could not undertake to accept all or any of

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