Brief No 2
CONFIDENTIAL
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slow pace at which the refugees are being moved on to countries
of permanent settlement. Britain has agreed to take 10,000 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong, who are being transferred at
a rate of about 500 a month. Attempts to speed up this rate
have been frustrated by the diffiuclty of finding sufficient
numbers willing to come to Britain.
7. A much more serious problem for Hong Kong at the moment
is the flood of immigrants from China. Nearly 300,000 have
arrived over the past two years, about half of them legally.
Illegal immigrants who are arrested at the border are repatriated, but large numbers evade arrest, despite reinforcement of the garrison agreed by Ministers last summer to help intensify border
controlls. Repeated requests have been made to the Chinese Government. The Chinese Premier, Hua Guofeng, gave Mrs Thatcher a categorical assurance, when he was in London in November, that
The appropriate steps to deal with the problem would be taken. Chinese indicated that they planned to introduce new measures
in January. The effect of. these is not yet clear. In the meantime,
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the arrival of several hundred new immigrants every day is placing
an increasingly heavy burden on Hong Kong's social services.
CONFIDENTEIAL