(Vietnamese Refugees) mporarily in tray_the_on orth-east monsoo.... in October. re than the total population
the constituencies that the House.
ng is not large. It is about miles, but only 100 square table for urban development are. The rest is steep hill rless islands. In the metro the population density is quare mile. For 20 year r the population grew at
cent. per annum due to nd natural increase. In the the rate of growth dropped } per cent. per annum. By Cong's population growth e been brought to a reas That was due as much to fforts to reduce the birth- 's control of immigration. ural resources the people mselves up by their own e gross domestic product er than the population. ployment. Wages have those in all other coun- n. There have been re- ements in the develop ervices, housing, educa- vices and social security. ese industrious people, ent for which Britain is sible, were beginning to fraising their standard ting the social deficien- e post-war influx from as been put at risk by rease of immigration, from China, and the
Vietnam.
migration rose sharply 1,750 a month. In the 1978 there was a net igrants a month.
In
the year it was 13,000
th.
In the first three
it has been 22,000
a Since the beginning
ake of immigrants has been about
545
Hong Kong
17 MAY 1979
Sir P. Bryan: The most rudimentary requirement of this new population is, of course, housing. Even now, over a million people in Hong Kong are inadequately housed, in spite of a housing programme which has housed nearly 2 million people in the past 25 years. The housing pro- gramme and other works have made demands on the construction industry that it cannot meet. The Government have had to slow down the rate of growth in development expenditure. Even so, the housing programme over the next six years will provide housing for about 185,000 people a year. In other words, housing for an additional million people will be provided by 1985.
But the situation is now becoming des- perate. I understand that, on present trends, it is now being forecast in Hong Kong that there will be 500,000 immi- grants of all sorts this year. This makes nonsense of the Government's attempts to improve housing or any other social services for their own people. Nor is it easy to see how the economy can expand to provide jobs for such numbers.
Hong Kong lives largely by manufac turing. Nearly half of its exports are of textiles and clothing, but its principal markets, the United States of America and the European Economic Community, have imposed restrictions which prevent any meaningful growth in volume of its main exports.
It can trade up but this will not create more jobs. Indeed, trad- ing up is more likely to reduce jobs. A committee in Hong Kong is looking at the problem of the diversification of industry but no rapid results can be expected.
This background of the pressure of people sets the scene for the onset of the refugee problem from Vietnam. Upon the fall of South Vietnam, Hong Kong accepted for permanent residence some 7,000 Indo-Chinese who were caught in Hong Kong and unwilling or unable to return. A total of 31 charter flights were arranged by the Hong Kong Government to bring out some 5,000 relatives of Hong Kong people from Vietnam. Any of the boat people who establish connections with Hong Kong are admitted, even though some may have landed first else where. Hong Kong is doing its part by finding permanent homes for 15.000 refugees who have connections with Hong Kong.
1 L 37
(Vietnamese Refugees)
546
humanely, observing scrupulously inter- Hong Kong IS treating relugees national conventions on safety of life at sea and on refugees. No leaky boats Kong. Accommodation has been con- have been towed out to sea from Hong trived efficiently and food provided. But becoming known and is drawing in more this very humanity and efficiency i than Hong Kong's share of these unfor- tunate boat people, especially now that the north-east monsoons has abated and the sea journey to Hong Kong has become less perilous.
Not only have the elements become more clement but the risks of escape can now be avoided by paying Vietnamese officials. This cynical exploitation of the misery which the Vietnamese Govern- ment have created has opened the way to escape not only to the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam but increasingly to the Viet- namese themselves.
The extent of the depravity of the Vietnamese Government can be judged by the reports circulating among would- be refugees to the effect that when the wealthiest have left, the price of freedom will be reduced to maximise returns.
Lord Goronwy-Roberts condemned this State profiteering at the expense of the refugees in another place on 14 Feb- ruary. I am sure there is no party dif- ference on such an issue. The rapid recent increase in the numbers of refugees leav- ing Vietnam shows the emptiness of the assurances of orderly emigration given by the Vietnamese United Nations High Commission for Government to the Refugees and referred to by Lord Goronwy-Roberts in February.
Hundreds
In addition to the 15,000 Vietnamese refugees to whom Hong Kong has granted permanent residence, there are now 29,000 refugees temporarily in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement. are still arriving every day. Last Thurs- day, in one day, 1,724 landed from small boats. Less than a quarter of the refu gees now in transit in Hong Kong have been accepted by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees whose procedures are unable to keep up with the arrivals. Only 3,000 have been found homes abroad this year.
many problems on its own, but in the Hong Kong has faced and overcome matter of refugees from Vietnam there is