June 1981
VIETNAM: MORE REFUGEES
The recent increase in the flow of refugees from Vietnam poses new problems of resettlement and
asylum.
DSR 11C
-
The number of those leaving Vietnam clandestinely has
again been increasing since early 1981. In February, just
under 4000, and in March over 5000, reached Hong Kong, the
South-East Asian countries and Japan; in May more than
10,000 arrived. And, while on 1 January 1981 nearly 53,000
Vietnamese refugees were in the main countries of asylum
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Macau,
Singapore and Japan, the figure on 1 May was still about
50,000. Some 30,000 new refugees had arrived in the
intervening period, but only about 25,000 had been
resettled. The arrival rate in Hong Kong in the first five
months of 1981 was double that of the same period of 1980.
With 16,000 still in camps in Hong Kong, the office of
(UNHCR)
the UN High Commission for Refugees (there reversed a decision
taken in April 1981 to cut its budget for 1981 and reduce
staff. Hong Kong has one of the highest population densities
in the world 4,852 people per square kilometre in 1980
and since 1970 the population has increased by nearly 30 per
cent to over five million. An influx of illegal immigrants
from China (177,000 in the two years 1979-80) has added to
the strain on the social services. About 100,000 Vietnamese
have arrived in Hong Kong since 1975.
Large numbers of ethnic Chinese were expelled from
Vietnam in 1978 and early 1979, and as economic conditions
there deteriorated increasing numbers of ethnic Vietnamese
left too. The government connived at their departure,
'exacting