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Hong Kong India
8,558
192
Indonesia
1,312
Japan
1,386
Korea (South)
873
Macao
⚫812
Malaysia
27,084
Philippines
3,883
Singapore
Taiwan
Thailand
3,251
1,474
80,148
Viet Nam Others
4,901
2,921
These refugees were moved to 40 different countries of resettle- ment.
In 1975, when the first 4,000 Vietnamese refugees were allowed to land in Hong Kong from the Danish ship "Clara Maersk", the Government requested the local ICEM office to assist in their resettlement. The ICEM office in Hong Kong was the suc- cessor to what had been a Joint UNHCR/ICEM Office which from 1952 to its closure in 1973 had handled the final resettlement of over 22,000 European refugees who had reached Hong Kong in transit from China. ICEM then decided to maintain a separate office for the residual caseload of some 800 European refugees left in China and because it was also assisting yearly some 2,000/3,000 Chinese residents of Hong Kong to emigrate. The ICEM office in Hong Kong therefore had experienced staff avail- able immediately to handle the problem of Indochinese refugees in 1975.
Subsequently, acting on behalf of UNHCR, ICEM assumed full responsibility for arranging the housing and resettlement pro- cessing of Indochinese refugees once the Hong Kong Government had decided to allow them to land. This included interviewing and presenting them to the consuls of countries of immigration. However, as there was a dramatic increase in arrivals in 1978, UNHCR sent representatives from its Regional Office to take over the arrangements for receiving and temporarily accommodating refugees. In October 1978, ICEM sent its representative from Hong Kong to Kaohsiung Taiwan to arrange for the departure of 346 refugees from the British vessel "Well Park" on two chartered flights to London. The Hong Kong Government has now asked the ICEM office to make arrangements for moving the refugees who will be allowed to leave the "Sibonga".
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