Illegal Aliens Hong Kong

About 2,000 Vietnamese "boat people" began a hunger strike in Hong Kong to protest a policy that treats them as illegal immigrants subject to repatriation. The refugees at a detention center in the Shatin district refused to eat after officials began screening under a year-old policy that makes them subject to deportation unless they can prove they fled political persecution. Another 492 Vietnamese refugees sailed into Hong Kong waters and were towed to Tai A Chau, an outlying island without any shelter.

While millions of people in China may want to live in prospering Hong Kong, Lam Mei-cheng, a housewife from nearby Guangdong province, had three compelling reasons to sneak across the border: Her husband and two of her children are here. But under the strict immigration laws of Hong Kong and China, Lam had been separated from her husband for more than half of their 11-year marriage. They have a total of four children but had been apart even during the births of some of them.

China for the first time has refused to accept Chinese illegal immigrants being returned from Hong Kong, a Hong Kong government spokesman said. A total of 70 were scheduled to be repatriated to the neighboring Chinese province of Guandong, but Chinese officials refused to accept them at the border. The Hong Kong spokesman said that talks are being conducted on the incident. Under a 1982 accord, China has routinely accepted illegal immigrants returned by Hong Kong.

Recent violence in a Vietnamese refugee camp in Hong Kong, rather than fostering outside sympathy for the detainees' hopes of resettlement abroad, is intensifying the determination of authorities to send most "boat people" back to Vietnam. Robert van Leeuwen, the top U.N.

While millions of people in China may want to live in prospering Hong Kong, Lam Mei-cheng, a housewife from nearby Guangdong province, had three compelling reasons to sneak across the border: Her husband and two of her children are here. But under the strict immigration laws of Hong Kong and China, Lam had been separated from her husband for more than half of their 11-year marriage. They have a total of four children but had been apart even during the births of some of them.

Recent violence in a Vietnamese refugee camp in Hong Kong, rather than fostering outside sympathy for the detainees' hopes of resettlement abroad, is intensifying the determination of authorities to send most "boat people" back to Vietnam. Robert van Leeuwen, the top U.N.

China for the first time has refused to accept Chinese illegal immigrants being returned from Hong Kong, a Hong Kong government spokesman said. A total of 70 were scheduled to be repatriated to the neighboring Chinese province of Guandong, but Chinese officials refused to accept them at the border. The Hong Kong spokesman said that talks are being conducted on the incident. Under a 1982 accord, China has routinely accepted illegal immigrants returned by Hong Kong.

About 2,000 Vietnamese "boat people" began a hunger strike in Hong Kong to protest a policy that treats them as illegal immigrants subject to repatriation. The refugees at a detention center in the Shatin district refused to eat after officials began screening under a year-old policy that makes them subject to deportation unless they can prove they fled political persecution. Another 492 Vietnamese refugees sailed into Hong Kong waters and were towed to Tai A Chau, an outlying island without any shelter.