CONFIDENTIAL
11.
Resettlement
quotas for all Indo-Chinese refugees have declined
A s
the following table shows, Hong Kong has been
particularly affected by this decline.
in recent years.
REGIONAL
YEAR
RESETTLEMENT
1981
112,300
1982
56,100
1983
49,400
1984
54,100
HONG KONG
RESETTLEMENT
HONG KONG'S
PROPORTION
17,800
9,200
16 per cent
16 per cent
4,200
9 per cent
3,700
7 per cent
Reasons for the decline appear to include:
(a)
"Compassion Fatigue"
Nearly 10
problem i s
years after the fall of Saigon, the
perceived as less pressing
Indo-Chinese refugee
than it was and has been
overtaken by other refugee crises, e g Iran, Afghanistan, and
Ethiopia.
(b) Domestic considerations of resettlement
Many
resettlement
countries
countries are reluctant to accept large quotas of
refugees because they already face high unemployment, and are
concerned about the strain that large numbers of unemployed refugees
might place on welfare services. The UK has had one of the least
satisfactory experiences
this respect:
80% of the adult
in
Vietname se resettled here are unemployed.
(c) Reluctance to accept "non-refugees"
The Americans in particular support the view that the majority of the refugees now arriving in Hong Kong are economic migrants. Since
mid-1982 about 50% of those selected by the US Consulate in Hong
Kong as eligible for admission under the US Refugee Programme have
subsequently been rejected by the Immigration and
Naturalisation
Service (INS) on the grounds that they are not refugees (although
since late 1984 the rate of rejection has fallen to 20%).
(d) View that UK should take the lead in resettling refugees from
Hong Kong
The main reason why Hong Kong has been more affected by the decline
CONFIDENTIAL