It is alarming that many of those in charge of refugee policy in Hong Kong assume that there will still be Vietnamese in camps there when Hong Kong returns to China in 1997. It was pointed out that under the terms of the Agreement, Hong Kong will retain its own immigration ordinance and that therefore the position of the refugees will be no less secure than it is at present. That is little consolation for people who have no legal basis for remaining in Hong Kong, whose ethnic origin makes them vulnerable to Chinese hostility and who know that the cost of their continued presence in Hong Kong is resented by other legal residents there, who sometimes themselves suffer appalling housing conditions or separation from close families in China.
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The conditions in the closed camps in particular have been observed and criticised by British refugee agencies and visiting members of Parliament. Refugees live in prison conditions, unable to make even minor decisions about their own lives, in camps which are designed to discourage others from fleeing to Hong Kong. Those conditions are outside the terms of reference of this report; but they provide additional compelling reasons for Britain to take a lead in resettling the refugees and clearing the camps well before 1997.
Hong Kong is a British colony, which Britain explictly exempted from its international obligations under the United Nations Conven- tion and Protocol on Refugees. The British government thus has ultimate responsibility for any Vietnamese refugees who have not been resettled elsewhere and yet have no right to remain in Hong Kong when the territory ceases to be Britain's responsibility.
Britain should therefore
relax the criteria for naturalisation in Hong Kong so that the naturalisation process operates in the same way as it does in Britain.
try to ensure that Chinese travel document facilities are available before 1997 for Chinese nationals who wish to use them
take a lead in resettling Vietnamese refugees who have no immigration status in Hong Kong and whose right to stay there is not guaranteed under the Agreement
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