CONFIDENTIAL
Director of Immigration
From
(9)
IMM/CR 8/1341
Ref.
In
Tel. No.
3-7328200
11 June 1985
Date
MEMO
To
Secretary for Security
Your Ref.
in
dated
Seen
ling
PA
7
Sweden - Visa Abolition
The opportunity is being taken to raise the subject of visa abolition with a senior official from the Swedish Immigration Board, Mrs ASJA GRANATH, who is on attachment for one month to the Swedish Consulate General.
2.
At Mrs Granath's request a programme of visits to this Department has been arranged for 7 and 14 June. This report deals with the visit of 7 June. The second visit will be reported separately.
3.
Mrs Granath explained that decisions on the admission of aliens were agreed jointly by the Nordic countries, who operate a "common travel area". The decision to maintain existing visa requirements had been confirmed before the Agreement on HK's future, and re-confirmed in March 1985. At that time (so Mrs Granath hinted) HK was not seen as a serious problem but the general climate of opinion was against any relaxation. This stemmed from general concern, and one which was bringing immigration increasingly into public focus, i.e. the large number of asylum cases in recent months. None of these was from Hong Kong they were mainly from disturbed areas of the Middle East, Sri Lanka and South America. Increasingly these new arrivals were throwing away their travel documents and concealing their true identities to prevent repatriation. This suggested that they may not be genuine refugees. definition of "refugee" had been changed (in 1984?) and this had the effect of doubling the number of asylum seekers in Sweden, with a much greater increase in Denmark (we will try to obtain more precise details when we next see Mrs Granath).
The
4.
Mrs Granath said that she was aware of the 'visa problem' for Hong Kong. Her initial thinking was that inconvenience could be lessened by making visa valid for multiple journeys, and by issuing group visas with minimum formality.
5.
In response to questions Mrs Granath confirmed
There that Sweden had no problems with visitors from HK. might be some atrempts by HK people already settled there to bring in bogus dependants.
RE
REGISTRY
4529
12/6/85 107
/6.
機密
CONFIDENTIAL ##
G.F. 740.
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