View source for Alan Carter (civil servant)

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{{more footnotes needed|date=April 2016}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = Alan Carter
| native_name = {{nobold|賈達德}}
| native_name_lang = zh-hk
| honorific-suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|ISO|JP}}
| image = 
| caption =
| birth_date =5 August 1929
| birth_place = [[Medway]], [[Kent]], United Kingdom
| death_date = {{death date and age|2016|4|1|1929|8|5|df=yes}}
| death_place= [[Bournemouth]], [[Dorset]], United Kingdom
| occupation = Immigration official
| nationality = 
| spouse =
| website =
| footnotes = 
}}
'''Alan John Carter''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|ISO|JP}} ({{zh|t=賈達德}}; 5 August 1929 – 1 April 2016) was a British and [[Hong Kong]] immigration official. He was the [[Immigration Department (Hong Kong)|Director of Immigration]] of Hong Kong from 1983 to 1989, being the last expatriate to hold the office.  He died in April 2016 at the age of 86.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/201524/carter |title=CARTER |access-date=6 January 2017 |archive-date=22 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422220213/http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/201524/carter |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Career==
===Early career===
Carter joined the [[Civil Service (United Kingdom)|Civil Service]] in 1949 as an executive officer in the [[Ministry of Works (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Works]]. He was appointed, on in-service transfer, as an [[Immigration Officer]] of the [[UK Immigration Service|Immigration Branch]] of the [[Home Office]] in 1955 and was promoted Chief Immigration Officer in 1963.

===Career progression===
In 1966, he was posted to Hong Kong, then a [[British crown colony]], as a Principal Immigration Inspector and was subsequently promoted to the ranks of Assistant Director and Deputy Director of the Immigration Department in 1971 and 1978 respectively. Before becoming Director in 1983, he had been responsible for tackling the influx of [[illegal immigrant]]s from the [[mainland China]] as well as the influx of [[Vietnamese boatpeople]]. He assisted in implementing the "[[Immediate repatriation upon arrest policy|immediate repatriation upon arrest]]" policy in 1980.

When Carter was Director of Immigration, the [[Sino-British Joint Declaration]] of 1984 confirmed the [[Handover of Hong Kong|transfer of Hong Kong]] to the [[People's Republic of China]] in 1997. Against this background, he took part in a number of expert meetings under the [[Sino-British Joint Liaison Group]], in the capacity of expert delegate on behalf of the United Kingdom, to negotiate with the Chinese on a number of immigration-related issues, such as the nationality and passport of the [[Hong Kong people]] after 1997. These meetings, in which [[Regina Ip]] was one of his assistants, resulted in the introduction of the second-generation computerised [[Hong Kong identity card]] as well as the [[British National (Overseas) passport]] in 1987.

In the early 1987, one of the accommodated [[Vietnamese boat people|Vietnamese refugee boat]]s in Hong Kong received the supply of [[Immigration Department (Hong Kong)|Immigration Department]] to voluntarily depart and continue sailing. It arrived in [[Kinmen]] to apply for [[Right of asylum|asylum]], but was rejected and slaughtered by the [[Republic of China Army]] on March 7, then the boat was burnt to destroy the evidence.  The documents signed by Director Carter for the Vietnamese captain on December 12 1986, and for the passenger refugees on January 12 1987 were also hidden, along with other English and French evidence from [[Singapore]] and Vietnam, during the later court martial process after being exposed by media. The [[Ministry of National Defense (Republic of China)|ROC Ministry of National Defense]] repeatedly denied on the journalists' reportages and the parliament questioning in June, until being uncovered by the publication of [[Superior-general|General]] [[Hau Pei-tsun]]'s diary in 2000 and by the follow-up Control Yuan report in 2022, known as the [[1987 Lieyu massacre|Lieyu Massacre]]。<ref>{{cite book |last=Hau |first=Pei-tsun |title=八年參謀總長日記 |trans-title=8-year Diary of the Chief of the General Staff (1981–1989) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2WKCAAAAIAAJ |publisher=[[:zh:天下文化|Commonwealth Publishing]] |date=1 January 2000 |isbn=9576216389 |language=zh-TW |location=Taipei}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Guan |first=Ren-jian  |url=https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010516575 |title=你不知道的台灣 國軍故事 |trans-title=The Taiwan you don't know: Stories of ROC Arm Forces |date=1 September 2011 |isbn=9789576636493 |publisher=Puomo Digital Publishing |access-date=20 October 2022 |language=zh-TW |location=Taipei}}</ref><ref name="Gao">{{Cite web|title=111司調0025 調查報告 |trans-title=2022 Justice Investigation Report No. 0025 |url=https://www.cy.gov.tw/CyBsBoxContent.aspx?n=133&s=17946 |last=Gao |first=Yong-cheng |date=13 July 2022 |access-date=7 August 2022 |publisher=[[Control Yuan]] |language=zh-TW |location=Taipei}}</ref>

==Recognition==
In recognition of his public service, Carter was awarded the [[Imperial Service Order]] (ISO) in 1980,<ref name="iso">"[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/48212/supplement/21 Supplement to Issue 48212]", ''London Gazette'', 13 June 1980, p.21.</ref> the [[Hong Kong Disciplined Services Medal]] in 1987 and the [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] in 1988.<ref name="hkdsm">〈入境事務處及海關人員六十位榮獲港督頒獎章〉（1987年9月2日）</ref><ref name="cbe">"[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/51365/supplement/17 Supplement to Issue 51365]", ''London Gazette'', 10 June 1988, p.17.</ref> He was appointed an official [[Justice of the Peace]] from 1971 to 1989.<ref name="who">''Who's Who in Asian and Australasian Politics'' (1991), p.40.</ref>

As Hong Kong and China started to develop closer ties in the 1980s, Carter opened a number of new immigration checkpoints and facilities, including the [[Sha Tau Kok Control Point|Sha Tau Kok]] and [[Lok Ma Chau Control Point]]s, the new [[Hong Kong–Macau Ferry Terminal|Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal]] in [[Sheung Wan]] and the [[China Ferry Terminal]] in [[Tsim Sha Tsui]], etc. He was also noted for assisting in executing the "[[screening policy]]" in 1988 in order to prepare for systematic repatriation of the Vietnamese boatpeople.

== Footnotes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
* 〈入境事務處及海關人員六十位榮獲港督頒獎章〉，《華僑日報》第六張第一頁，1987年9月2日。
* ''Who's Who in Asian and Australasian Politics''. London: Bowker-Saur, 1991. {{ISBN|978-0-86291-593-3}}
* ''40th Anniversary: 1961-2001''. Hong Kong: HKSAR Immigration Department, 2001.

== External links ==
* [http://www.immd.gov.hk/ Hong Kong Immigration Department]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUPWJTxtUk Interview of Alan Carter in 1989]

{{S-start}}
{{S-gov}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Ronald Bridge]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Director of Immigration]]|years=1983–1989}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Laurence Leung]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Alan}}
[[Category:1929 births]]
[[Category:2016 deaths]]
[[Category:Government officials of Hong Kong]]
[[Category:British civil servants]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Companions of the Imperial Service Order]]