1
CONFIDENTIAL
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Since
The numbers have again
fell from 464 in May to 21 in June.
risen sharply and the garrison is to be reinforced again
shortly. The daily average for fast month was over 500,
the highest last year. We believe that these numbers are
due to well publicised announcements by the Chinese of
harsher punishments for offences related to illegal
immigration which came into effect on 1 January. We will
have to wait and see how effective these measures are:
preliminary indications are that
If new punishments are very harsh, we will have to watch
parliamentary and public opinion here, since part of our
defence of the repatriation policy has always been that
the punishments were not unduly harsh.
3.
Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong.
Vietnamese
arrivals in Hong Kong have dropped from 19,651 in June to
in December and departures have risen from 1608 to
over the same period. There were still
Vietnamese in Hong Kong on January
Only 3174 were resettled in UK in first 11 months of 1979.
It is planned to resettle 2600 in first 3 months of 1980
but Hong Kong Government are anxious for the numbers to be
increased. Home Office say this is impossible, because of he
the.
limitation on numbers the voluntary agencies can process
through camps to permanent housing.
CONFIDENTIAL
:)