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Page No. 9 of 10 pages
34.
The Macau authorities appear to be trying to tighten up their
controls. They are reported to be sending back many more of the illegal
immigrants they detect and the police are opening fire in order to stop
fleeing syndicate boats.
From Vietnam
35.
2,364 refugees directly or indirectly from Vietnam arrived during
August as compared with 2,823 in July. About half came from Central and
Southern Vietnam, some 200 by sailing boats from Hanoi and about 800 from
China where they had been settled. A factor in the arrivals from Vietnam
was the continuing south-west monsoon, which is likely to go on blowing
until early October. The Vietnamese previously settled in China are showing
increasing sophistication in concealing their point of departure: one boat
arrived painted in typical Vietnamese style with a fake resgistration number
and the passengers in another professed only Vietnamese and an inability to
understand Cantonese.
36.
There is no sign of any impending change in the Vietnamese
Government's ban on departures. The refugees arriving direct from Vietnam
are the result of private enterprise, sometimes in conjunction with low
level bribery. Movement out of Vietnam under the UNHCR orderly departure
scheme remains a trickle (only 2,000 so far this year) but the desire to
leave, particularly from the south, is as strong as ever. The captain of
a merchant ship which had been in Ho Chi Minh City has told of being
accosted in the streets there by persons begging for passages. This
echoes a recent report from the British Embassy Hanoi that, in the
absence of active resistance to the regime, the energies of the city's
population are concentrated on getting away.
37.
The Chinese authorities agreed during the month to accept the return
of some 2,000 named ex-China refugees and the operation to implement this
began in the last days of the month and has so far gone smoothly. It will be
completed by mid September with a transfer of some 800 refugees by a special
train. The Chinese have indicated their willingness to accept further
regular movements once this operation is over.
LIC, Hong Kong September 1980
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