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The Vietnamese Government's Moratorium
4. Shortly before the Geneva Conference on 21 July, the Vietnamese agreed to stop the departure of small boat refugees which until then had been taking place with the blatant assist- ance of the Vietnamese authorities. The arrival of 6,629 refugees in Hong Kong since then does not necessarily mean that the Vietnamese Government have not been honouring this agreement: most of the arrivals since 21 July either left Vietnam before
that date or did so clandestinely. A few boat-loads claim to have bribed low-level officials to enable them to get away, but there has been no evidence yet of central government connivance.
Only seven boats have arrived since the beginning of October.
There are however disturbing indications that the Vietnamese
Government may be making preparations to resume the exodus if they continue to be disappointed by the ineffectiveness of the
parallel agreement reached with UNHCR to arrange for the orderly departure of those wishing to leave: so far only 900 people have
left Vietnam under this scheme.