NEW REFUGEE PROBLEM......2
But although these were accommodated in army camps here they were technically not allowed to enter, and in the ensuing months nearly all were offered homes in the US, Canada, Australia, Britain and other countries.
Excluding those on the Clara Maersk, a total of 4,700 refugees from Indochina came to the surface in Hong Kong between January 1975 and May 1976. No one was sent home, although many travelled on to other lands.
Now, the Hong Kong government wants other refugees still living in the shadows here to come forward and be counted. These are estimated to total more than 5,000. Coupled with this plea to present themselves to the authorities is a government assurance that they will definitely not be sent home against their will.
But this has landed Hong Kong with other problems, apart from the difficulty of absorbing such a large number of immigrants in a population which already totals 4.5 million. For a start, such a humane attitude by the authorities is likely to encourage other refugees to try their luck here.
The Immigration Department is well aware of this risk. "We don't want Hong Kong to become a dumping ground for the rest of Asia", commented Deputy Director of Immigration Derek Readman. "We are trying not to encourage these people. We want to balance what is good for Hong Kong with what the individual needs".
The move also highlights an apparent anomaly in the colony's overall immigration policy, because while illegal refugees from Indochina are being allowed to stay, those caught after running the gauntlet of fleeing across the border from China (currently about 30 a month) are rounded up and sent back.
While most Indochinese refugees are of Chinese descent and are fluent in the predominant Hong Kong dialect of Cantonese, many Chinese here feel that their cousins across the border have a much more substantial right to be allowed to
remain here.
The decision to start sending back illegal refugees from China was taken in December 1974 after secret negotiations between Peking and London. Previously, all those arriving here from C ina had been allowed to settle.
Some non-communist Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong have bitterly denounced the decision. The mass-circulation Sing Tao Jih Pao deplored it as "a serious contravention of human rights". Another, the King Sheung Evening News, commented: "Refugees from the mainland (China) also need the same benevolent and sympathetic treatment (as those from Indochina) and should be allowed to stay here permanently".
The apparent double standards in Hong Kong's immigration policy can be explained by the fact that Britain now has a good rapport with Peking but experiences frustrations in its dealings with the Vietnamese.
Britain's Ambassador in Hanoi, Robert Tesh, has been trying in vain to prevail upon the Vietnamese to accept back those refugees in Hong Kong who are homesick and want to return. In fact, this amounts to only a handful, but a decision in principle on the issue by Hanoi would help Hong Kong in the future.
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