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CONFIDENTIAL
Essential Background and Factual Information
Refugees from Vietnam
The
1. Following the collapse of the non-communist regimes in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, some 700,000 people are
believed to have fled from those countries since 1975.
exodus from Vietnam, especially of the ethnic Chinese population, has risen sharply in the last few months encouraged by Vietnamese officials who take payment to arrange the refugees' flight. Over 12,000 fled Vietnam last October
and in November the number exceeded 21,000. Most have made
for Malaysia but Hong Kong and Thailand (the latter already has some 130,000 refugees in camps who crossed earlier over- land mainly from Laos and Cambodia) have also borne the brunt as immediate receiving countries. Until recently most of the
refugees have fled in small unseaworthy craft, but many thousands are now turning up at various ports crammed aboard
merchant vessels. The inference is that a large scale exodus
is now under way with official Vietnamese acquiescence and a
degree of official arrangement. This throws a new burden on
the rest of the world, particularly nearby countries in Asia. One vessel, the "Huey Fong", Panamian registered and Taiwanese owned, diverted to Hong Kong and has been anchored outside Hong Kong territorial waters since 23 December. The master has refused to sail for his scheduled port of call in Taiwan.
2. At the end of November, the United States had admitted over
20,000 "boat refugees"; Australia had taken about 10,000, France 2,700, the FRG 240, Canada 1,352 and the United Kingdom
576. To date the United Kingdom has admitted some 1,400 Indo- Chinese refugees of whom about half have been "boat refugees" many of the latter having been rescued by British vessels. But
the number of resettlement places on offer has not kept pace
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CONFIDENTIAL