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Vietnamese Refugees
15 DECEMBER 1978
A problem of course exists in Indo- China. It is the result of savage Communist-inspired and supported insurrections. The refugees whom we are considering are overwhelmingly Chinese. Why should they not go to China? This never seems to be suggested. But they are Chinese: they have migrated to many parts of Indo-China-Malaya, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. All those place have substantial Chinese popula- tions, which are migrant in the sense that they are ethnically derived from some- where else, and migrant also in another sense, in that they are fairly footloose.
**
They are not by any means as foot- loose as the Indians in East Africa, who moved up and down the coast as̟ condi- tions changed. But India never denied its responsibility for accepting the East African Indian traders. That point was never sufficiently realised in this country, but I never criticised India. India never refused to accept any of the people from Uganda or Kenya-provided that they had not first elected to come here. If they had, India said that it had been disowned. That was how the shuttlecock cases arose. Otherwise, India would take any of the so-called United Kingdom pass- port holders-a nonsensical term-and any of the East African traders could always go to India. If they came here, it was because they preferred England to Bombay.
£6
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The same should be true-1 do not know whether it is, and I hope that the Minister will say-of China. China is the ethnic home of these people. Almost by definition it has those climatic characteristics that my hon. Friend said are obviously desirable for these people. What is more, China, either on its own or in concert with Russia, has the ulti- mate responsibility for the terrible plight in which these people now find them- selves. It is no good a country such as China or Russia washing its hands of what it has done. That is where the responsibility lies.
I hope that we shall not be chival- rously unrealistic and say that wherever in the world persecution or population pressure or migration pressure arises, this country is the appointed terminus of the migration flow. That is what has hap- pened. I am sure that the Minister will remember, after the war, the tremendous population pressure that had been
6 Y 41
Vietnamese Refugees
1224
bottled up during the war-caused mainly, I suppose, by the use of DDT, if we are to be frank. As soon as the shipping shortage was over, they started flooding out of the West Indies and such places to all sorts of destinations.
The doors were quickly shut, and we had them-not because of empire but, characteristically, because we
were the very last to shut the door. Ours was the last door that remained open. That is why they came here. The United States' contribution to population pressures in the West Indies was an agreement to take, I think, 13 a year.
I do not want that to happen again, with all others shutting their doors be- cause of the magnitude of the efflux. My hon. Friend has shown the magni- tudes that we are talking about--currently running at about 12,000 a month. I do not want that 10 happen again. We have no specific responsibility towards South- East Asia, either of history or of geo- graphy, and I hope that the interests of the British people will be carefully borne in mind when other interests are weighed in the balance.
12.55 p..
Mr. Richard Luce (Shoreham): I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham (Mr. Goodhart) on launch- ing a debate on this important subject. He has kept up a sustained interest in the subject and, as he said, about a year ago he had an Adjournment debate on the matter. I recently paid a visit to both Hong Kong and Thailand, which certainly brought home to me the scale of the refugee problem in the Indo-China area. As my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Bell) implied, we need reminding of the back- ground to this refugee problem, of the great crime-one can describe it as no less--committed in the various Commu- nist Indo-China countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos against human beings, the gross abuse of the individual rights of human beings by regimes, one of which, the Vietnamese, is supported and encouraged by the Soviet Union. In- evitably, that poses a threat to peace and stability in the area.
Mr. Ronald Bell: No sanctions.
Mr. Luce: I will not develop that point at the moment.