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Hong Kon
[Sir P. Bryan.]
a clear obligation on the international community to provide speedy and effec- tive help.
An international effort on a totally new scale is required. Only three countries now have an ongoing refugee resettle- ment programme of any size-namely, America, Canada and the United King dom. The American programme, which is the largest, shows signs of slowing down, not accelerating. If all the EEC countries were to accept refugees for re- settlement in the same proportion to their own populations as Hong Kong itself has done already, new homes for 650,000 people should be available.
We have for the most part left Hong Kong to deal with its own problems, and it has done well. But one inescapable responsibility of a metropolitan power which we cannot shift on to a dependent territory is the conduct of its foreign rela- tions. Its Foreign Minister is Lord Carrington, just as he is ours. It is there- fore the responsibility of the United King- dom to generate an adequate refugee re- settlement operation in other countries through the United Nations.
It is now up to the United Kingdom to impress upon the rest of the world the gravity of the situation developing rapidly in Hong Kong. We have agreed to accept 1,000 refugees from Hong Kong this year. This figure was set before the rapid esca- lation of the problem in recent weeks became apparent. If we are to carry conviction in pressing other nations to accept more refugees in this new situation, we shall have to do more ourselves.
In addition to accepting more refugees from Hong Kong, the important step for the Government to take now is to acknowledge and accept responsibility for finding resettlement places for all refugees landing in the British dependency of Hong Kong-not just those whom they are able to accommodate in this country. Resettlement requires a diplomatic initia tive which a dependent territory is in no position to take. Other countries in South-East Asia can do so and are having some success. Since only the United Kingdom can take the initiative on the Hong Kong problem, it must be the United Kingdom which accepts respon- Bibility for its success or failure. I hope that the House can be assured that the
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Government cannot contemplate failure in the discharge of this responsibility.
10.9 p.m.
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Peter Blaker): I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Howden (Sir P. Bryan) for his kind remarks about me and for raising this important subject. He speaks with authority on Hong Kong, and his views will command the respect of the House. I say at once that I agrec entirely about the seriousness of the situation.
I should like first to pay tribute to the Government and people of Hong Kong for the sympathetic and humane way- which my hon. Friend brought out very well in his remarks-in which they have responded to a problem which has been thrust upon them and is not of their own making.
The figures involved are indeed alarm- ing. I apologise to the House because I shall be giving even more figures which, though not particularly at variance with those of my hon. Friend the Member for Howden, are the latest figures that I have.
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Earlier this year considerable publicity was given in this country to the events surrounding the arrival in Hong Kong of two ocean-going freighters, the "Huey Fong" and the "Skyluck", carrying between them 6,000 refugees who had been callously exported from Vietnam in return for large payments of dope. The 'Huey Fong and the "Skyluck attracted worldwide attention and sympathy. It is often not realised that the refugees who arrived in those two ships were only one aspect of the problem which confronts Hong Kong at present. Most of the refugees arrived in small boats, a few dozen people at a time. They arrived inconspicuously, though often perilously, and they did not make headline news. But together they add up to a much greater problem than than posed by the "Huey Fong" and the
Skyluck ".
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Over 27,000 refugees have come to Hong Kong from Vietnam since the beginning of this year-that is the latest figure I have-and more than 18,000 of them arrived in Hong Kong in small boats. As my hon. Friend said, the situ- ation is getting worse. In January over 2,000 refugees arrived. In April the total