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Hong Kong is most grateful to the resettlement countries for their continued help and I must particularly mention in this context the USA, Australia and Canada. Whatever the consensus may be as to the appropriateness of resettlement as the durable solution to this problem, the fact remains that a continuing resettlement programme from Hong Kong will be essential for some time to come.
5. In the past year two particular aspects of the problem have emerged still more prominently than before. One is the so called "hard core", the considerable backlog of people who are effectively stuck in Hong Kong. As mentioned last week of the 14,000 such people now in Hong Kong, 40% have been there for more than two years; 33% for more than three years and a very worrying total of no less than 25% have been there for more than four years. I urge that priority be given to these people. Their need is acute.
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Secondly, in the past year the percentage of fugitives from Northern Vietnam has increased dramatically. In 1981 they were 17% of the total. In 1982 - 22%. But so far this year they have accounted for no less than 45%. These people are ethnic Vietnamese; they have very few if any relatives outside Vietnam: they have had no previous contact which would give them under present criteria any priority for resettlement: they have few skills to enable them to re-establish themselves elsewhere. So, since for the reasons 1 have given they cannot be integrated locally in Hong Kong and they are most unlikely to be resettled, their prospects are particularly bleak.
7. At this stage I must pay tribute to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and his staff for all that they have done in the last twelve months in Hong Kong where an excellent cooperation continues to exist among all those concerned with this problem.
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