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ROLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR)
4.
The UNHCR has an office in Hong Kong. It meets most of the
current cost of maintaining the refugees and the majority of the
camps for them in Hong Kong. It is responsible for arranging
More than 17,000 have been settled so far
their resettlement.
this year.
EX-CHINA REFUGEES
5.
More than 250,000 refugees from Vietnam have been settled in
China. A number of these have entered Hong Kong illegally.
Several
thousand have already been returned to China but about 2,700 are
still in Hong Kong. They are looked after by the Hong Kong
Government who are continuing discussions with the Chinese about
their return to China.
HM GOVERNMENT'S ROLE
6. It was HMG that took the initiative in calling for the inter-
national conference on Vietnamese refugees in 1979.
Since then,
more than 70,000 refugees have been resettled from Hong Kong
including 11,000 to the UK.
BOAT RESCUES
7. Many Vietnamese refugees are rescued at sea by passing vessels.
It is HMG's view that they should be the responsibility of the
vessel's first port of call after the rescue without the flag
state of the rescuing vessel having to give a guarantee to accept
the refugees for settlement. However, some of the territories in
the area are already burdened with direct arrivals from Vietnam
and in these cases HMG normally gives such a guarantee but only on
a case by case basis. (NOT FOR USE) No 10 is always consulted.
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