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umbers of refugees now in Hong Kong. At present
there are over 3,600 awaiting resettlement. While a
number of countries, notably the USA, have been
accepting refugees this has not been at a rate fast
enough to keep pace with the influx. This is despite
the setting-up by the United States authorities of
overspill facilities in Macao. Unless some solution
can be found to this problem there remains the
possibility that the Hong Kong Government will be
forced to adopt a more restrictive stance.
3. It is in any case inevitable that a number of the
refugees already in Hong Kong will not be accepted
To try
for resettlement elsewhere and will have to be allowed
to remain in Hong Kong. This may well cause some
public opposition since the Hong Kong Government
maintains a strict policy of repatriating would-be
illegal immigrants from China, many of whom have
family connections with Hong Kong residents.
and alleviate this problem, the Home Office earlier .
this year agreed to accept into the UK 61 refugees
from Hong Kong who could not be resettled elsewhere.
The number, although small, represented some 25% of
the total number of refugees who were unlikely to be
resettled at the time the offer was made. Consideration
is now being given to accepting a larger group - Once
a decision on this has been made we would hope to
approach other countries in an attempt to obtain
similar assistance from them.
4.
Relations between the Hong Kong Government and the
UNHCR are excellent and the UNHCR representatives in
the area pay frequent visits to Hong Kong. They have been particularly helpful in arranging accommodation
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