CONFIDENTIAL
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG : Note for Cabinet
1. A further refugee ship, the "Skyluck", arrived in Hong Kong harbour last night with 3,000 Vietnamese refugees (most of them ethnic Chinese) on board. The ship is Panamanian registered and appears to be Hong Kong owned. The Master claims that he picked up the refugees at sea and that Hong Kong was his first port of call. His story is implausible: it is much more likely that the Vietnamese Government was involved in the operation, as happened with the "Huey Fong" and that the refugees were made to
pay in gold for the privilege of embarking.
2. Including those on board the "Skyluck" there are now some 14,000 refugees from Vietnam in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement elsewhere. The territory is also having to cope with a very high level of immigration from China (100,000 in 1978 alone). We shall be appealing to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to speed up the resettlement of the refugees. I am considering what can be done to get the Vietnamese Government to moderate its repressive policy and stop dumping its unwanted people on other countries.
FCO
February 1979