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5.
Accordingly the Government is making accommodation available in places in which the presence of refugees will not dislocate existing Government programmes, where so far as possible Hong Kong people will not be inconvenienced, where the refugees will add to the labour force and where its management can be most economically effected.
6.
So far such facilities have been found mostly within urban areas or at Chi Ma Wan. If the numbers of refugees increases it may be necessary to look again at remote areas, including islands, despite the cost and problems of development and the inconvenience of sustaining refugees on them.
7.-
Turning now to deterrents and tougher measures. The Chief Secretary referred to the root of the problem when answering a question on the 23rd May. I also referred to the action which Hong Kong was taking in the Debate on the Second Reading of the 1979/80 Appropriation Bill of 1978/79.
8.
The ethnic Chinese population in Vietnarn is being systematically forced either into the new economic zones or to leave the country by means which Mrs. Thatcher in her recent letter to the Secretary General, United Nations refers to as "inhuman". These people feel so oppressed that they are determined to leave despite the risks inherent in the sea voyage in small.overcrowded vessels. The losses in this exodus have been estimated at 50% and they may well be higher. Such persons leave even though they know that if they reach certain shores within the region they will be diverted from landing and towed away. This treatment however has not deterred them from attempting to go to the countries which adopt this practice. The fact that very large numbers are now accommodated in overcrowded godowns and in their junks in anchorages in Hong Kong has not deterred them either. So I do not believe that the choice of the sites in which to accommodate refugees will have more than a possibly marginal influence on them in considering whether to come to Hong Kong.