TNAG-1205-FCO40-1507-Policy-on-visas-and-entry-certificates-in-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 18

8 June 1982

D-

LEK 345/2

Rt Hon Francis Pym MC MP

HOUSE OF COMMONS AFTS

LONDON SWIA OAA

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Downing Street

SW 1

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HONG KONG: Deportation of Miss Christine Vertucci

1 That

Recently I was approached by a group of my colleagues, Martin Flannery, Bob Parry, Dennis Canavan and Bob HeTaggart, over the recent deportation See 1166 from Hong Kong of Miss Christine Vertucci, an American lawyer and social worker.

I understand that Miss Vertucci had worked in Hong Kong for four years with the Asia Monitor Research Centre, an organization funded by American church groups, and on a voluntary basis had assisted local groups working on homelessness and other social issues. In particular she had researched the incidence of cancers in workers in the electronics industry. She was also co-author of a report to the United Nations on human rights in Hong Kong.

Miss Vertucci was deported without explanation being given and the decision was given to her with the minimum possible notice. She appealed against deportation to the then Governer, with support from a great number of social work and church bodies, but the appeal was rejected. Again she was given no explanation for her deportation. I understand that Miss Vertucci then exercised her right to petition your predecessor, who, however, rejected the petition while on his visit to the Middle East.

My colleagues informed me that they had had what they considered a most unsatisfactory meeting on this matter with Lord Belstead and officials. Apparently Lord Belstead was unable to give them any information, and my colleagues inform me that officials appeared to be deliberately obstructive, and that the whole conduct of the meeting fell short of the standards expected in dealing with Members of Parliament. In the circumstances my colleagues have requested a further meeting on the matter with Malcolm Rifkind.

My colleagues emphasized most strongly that Miss Vertucci was a person of repute, being a member of the California bar as well as a qualified social worker, that she worked with organizations of high standing, that she had broken no law, that she was not engaged in political activity, and that there were no allegations against her private life. They concluded that her deportation was caused by the embarassment which her investigations had caused to the authorities and to commercial interests. This view was shared by the Hong Kong Standard, which strongly criticized the deportation. My colleagues also saw this case as a sympton of weaknesses in the Hong

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