Thousands slip into colony

Press, 19 June 1979, Page 8

Thousands slip into colony

NZPA-Reuter Hong Kong Chinese illegal immigrants have adopted a novel way of speeding into Hong Kong — sliding across border man, grove swamps on primitive wooden ’’mud ekis.”

A British Army spokesman said: ‘‘They can move faster over the mud than a man can run over firm ground.” Almost <4,000 illegal immigrants have been caught and repatriated to China this year, most having been arrested by the land border patrols.

A military helicopter pilot recently spotted a group of about 40 "illegals” coming into Hong Kong across the Mai Po marshes on mud ; skis, plywood contraptions with a curved bow which they paddled or pushed along. Local oyster farmers often use the mud skis to collect their catches.

The police have arrested irt the last 24 hours a total of 16 taxi drivers suspected of having ferried illegal immigrants into Hong Kong from the border area. China, is using militiamen with guard dogs in a bid to stem the human wave of illegal immigrants pouring into Hong Kong daily. There are signs that troops from China’s fortysecond Army have been transferred back to the Hong Kong border after a spell of duty on the Sino-Vietnamese frontier during the February conflict there.

The serious immigratio problem for the overcrowde British colony, also tempoi ary home to 54,000 Vietnam ese refugees, is far fror over. One official said: “Th figures are better, but sti incredibly high.”