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Dozens of deported leftists allowed to return to HK

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Nearly 100 deportation orders issued against radical leftists in past decades have been overturned since the handover, signalling the Hong Kong government's growing willingness to let the exiles revisit the city.

According to figures provided by the Security Bureau, 96 deportation orders were suspended or overturned between July 1997 and last year.

A total of 261 applications for similar leniency have been received since the handover.

A spokesman for the Security Bureau said 45,082 people were deported from Hong Kong between 1935 and 1971 under the repealed Deportation of Aliens Ordinance and the Deportation (British Subjects) Ordinance. The majority were as a result of committing crimes.

Most were apparently sent to the mainland, and some to Taiwan.

Many leftists were deported from Hong Kong because the colonial government feared they were a threat to its rule, said Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, a professor with City University's department of public and social administration.

'If we look from today's attitude towards people with dissenting views, the deportation of many leftists was not reasonable. The government's lenient attitude towards the exiled leftists is conducive to political conciliation in Hong Kong.'

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