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Whether one of the problems is that resettlement
countries feel that the Vietnamese are not genuine
refugees.
I recall that this question was broached at your hearing with my colleague Mr Waddington and that both a member of the
Sub-Committee and Mr Waddington himself expressed the
view that a large number of those refugees coming out of
Vietnam at present are economic rather than political refugees.
We would agree with this assessment.
Interviews with
recent arrivals in Hong Kong endorse the view that the
motivation for the majority of those leaving Vietnam is economic
improvement. This is not to say, though, that given the
continuing political repression in Vietnam, political motivation
does not continue to play a strong part. Furthermore, as Mr Waddington rightly suggested, we should not overlook the fact that the Vietnamese Government is itself responsible
through its deplorable economic policies, for creating economic
circumstances which force people to take desperate measures. They are implementing policies which involve the extending of
state control throughout the economy, particularly in the more
dynamic south, where private businesses have continued to
flourish. When you have economic policies as extreme as this
it is difficult to draw the line between political and
economic motivation. If Vietnam were to withdraw its troops
from Cambodia and invest in its own economy the resources and
manpower which are devoted to the occupation of its neighbour,
the Vietnamese economy might not be in such a parlous state.
We are not alone in our view that many of the Vietnamese refugees are essentially economic refugees. Indeed the major
resettlement countries cite this as a reason for not taking
more refugees from Hong Kong. The Thai Government have also
expressed views on this question. Their representative at
UNHCR's Executive Committee meeting last October favoured
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