High-Tech Gurkhas Guard Hong Kong Border : Special Devices Detect and Catch Illegal Chinese Immigrants to British Colony

HONG KONG â€”  Handcuffed, scratched, and covered in gray mud, Chan Wankim tasted the fruits of glittering Hong Kong for only five minutes.

The wiry 15-year-old and his two cowering companions had been captured by tough Nepalese Gurkha troops immediately after sneaking across the “Bamboo Curtain� from China into the British colony of Hong Kong.

Chan’s capture was not a rare event. Dreams of economic self-betterment, rather than any theoretical aversion to China’s Communist system, have spurred a steady stream of illegal immigrants who are being captured at the rate of 35 a day.

His captors were soldiers of the 10th Gurkha Rifles. They are part of the 12,000-strong Gurkha brigade whose troops from the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal have operated within the British army under a special arrangement since 1815.

Although the Gurkhas are long on tradition, their modern-day chores are strictly high-tech.

Thermal Identifier Used

A guard on a hilltop above the border, using a sophisticated thermal identifier nightscope, easily spotted Chan and his companions--who appeared as white heat blobs--as they stumbled through the bush leading to the border fence.

As they touched the well-lighted, 18-foot-high steel and barbed wire barrier, an electronic alarm system was activated in a Gurkha control room. Concealed microphones relayed the sounds of the three scrambling over the fence and troops were dispatched on noiseless cross-country bicycles to apprehend them.

Had they succeeded in getting by those obstacles, the three would have been hemmed in along the hillside by a special pattern of “snake-wire,� which directs a fugitive into capture points.

Gurkha patrols, backed by dog teams, silently stake out the hills, responding to buried sensors that reveal the changing location of the illegals. A helicopter with another thermal identifier may be dispatched if there is a large breakthrough.

1 Out of 7 Caught

“If an illegal immigrant makes it one kilometer past the border, then he is basically sound,� one British officer said. “For every six we catch, we estimate one gets through.�

The tough Gurkhas display an almost benign restraint in performing their duty against the generally disheveled and emaciated intruders.

The Gurkhas say they are impressed by the stealth and agility of their quarry, who can clamber over a barbed wire fence or cut a hole through it in less than 30 seconds.

For Chan, though, whose odyssey began six days earlier when he set out on his journey from a southern rural region, it will be straight back to China.

Under interrogation at a police station, he is searched and his mud-soaked belongings scrutinized. They include a meager supply of rice gruel, a chunk of ginger, several plastic bags, a plastic wallet containing Chinese currency worth less than $2. Those are the items he planned to use to start a new life in Hong Kong.

Sometimes ‘A Bad Taste’

“Sometimes this job leaves a bad taste in your mouth,� Maj. John Purves conceded.

After a night in a detention center, Chan is interviewed by the Hong Kong Immigration Department. Each day at 3 p.m. a Hong Kong police truck meets a Chinese prison bus at midpoint on the Man Kam To border crossing to hand back the illegals.

British intelligence sources say they believe that those who try to enter Hong Kong illegally are not treated too severely when they are returned to China. A first offender may spend two weeks in a re-education camp and emerge with a shaven head after paying a fine.

Terms are said to be harsher for intellectuals or those with political motives for escape.

“People are no longer fleeing from an oppressive regime,� an intelligence officer said. “Their reasons are more socioeconomic. I would estimate that 90% are peasants and that the Chinese Communist Party hardly touches their lives.�

Not all illegal immigrants are as ill-prepared for life in Hong Kong as Chan.

Makeup, Identity Cards

Young women often change into designer fashions and apply makeup and nail polish minutes after crossing, leaving little to differentiate them from their Hong Kong counterparts.

False and stolen Hong Kong identity cards are beginning to appear, while some escapees have detailed sketch maps showing elaborate routes into the urban areas.

During the 1965-75 Cultural Revolution in China, Hong Kong border guards were capturing 1,000 illegal immigrants daily. The growing burden on Hong Kong’s already strained social facilities prompted the government to rescind its “touch base policy� in 1980.

Previously, once an illegal immigrant evaded capture at the border, he would be given sanctuary upon reaching the Kowloon immigration office. No amnesty is offered today, particularly in light of the 200,000 people waiting to legitimately emigrate from China, hoping to get one of the 27,000 annual placings.

Because China intends to maintain Hong Kong’s profitable economy after regaining the territory in 1997, it seems unlikely that the fence separating Hong Kong and China will be dismantled or that the tide of hopeful immigrants will ever abate.

“They just never stop coming,� said Gurkha Maj. Manbahadur Rai.