2

-

Resettlement in Hong Kong

4.

While the burden of boat refugees in places of first

asylum is temporary, Hong Kong has also made a major contribution to the regional problem by accepting for permanent settlement some 14,000 refugees and displaced persons from Indo-China who have arrived here since April 1975. These consist of:

Illegal Immigrants and Overstayers (estimated)

(from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia)

9,000

By special chartered flights organised by the

H.K. Government from Ho Chi Minh City

4,522

By scheduled commercial flights from HCM City

450

Boat refugees from Vietnam

260

Total:

14,232

That figure is equivalent to 285 people from Indo-China being permanently settled for every 100,000 of Hong Kong's population or 35 per square mile (14 per square kilometre).

Resettlement from Hong Kong

5.

Against this massive influx and the role that Hong Kong has already played, the rate at which Vietnamese refugees have been resettled elsewhere from Hong Kong has been disappointingly slow:

No. of refugees departed

1975 -

1978

6,153

Daily Average

1979 January

314

10

February

817

29

March

1,147

37

April

617

21

May

June

500

16

1,608

54

July

1,335

43

August

3,097

100

September 1st - 26th

2.730

105

Sub-total: 1979 to 26 September

12,165

45

Total:

18,318

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