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IMMIGRATION AND TO
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IMMIGRA
traffic in 1983 totalled some 27.6 million, an increase of 10.4 per cent compared with 25 million in 1982.
All immigration control points were extremely busy during the year. The bulk of the China traffic (9.9 million) was carried by rail via Lo Wu which remained under the heaviest pressure. Conditions for both travellers and staff at Lo Wu were uncomfortable because of severe overcrowding at the present temporary terminal building. The old terminal building has been demolished and work has started on a permanent modern terminal in keeping with Lo Wu's status as a busy gateway to China.
A new immigration control point was opened at Sham Shui Po on September 1, 1983, for hoverferries and jetfoils travelling between Kowloon and Macau. Other major projects to improve and enlarge immigration control points and to open new facilities are planned and a preliminary study has begun into the possibility of speeding up immigration clearance by the use of computer facilities.
Personal Documentation
The demand for travel documents during 1983 was just under one million, slightly less than the figures for 1982 and 1981. Re-entry permits for travel to China and Macau accounted for some 66 per cent of all issues.
In May a scheme began for replacing all existing Hong Kong identity cards with a new type of card. The new card is more difficult to forge and is backed by a computerised record system to facilitate quick authentication. Good progress was made and by the end of 1983 most men under 29 years of age had exchanged their cards. Over a million new cards have now been issued and the exercise will be completed in 1987.
Vietnamese Refugees
The Vietnamese refugee problem continued to place a heavy burden upon Hong Kong during 1983. At the start of the year, the territory accommodated 12 631 refugees: by the end of the year, although 4 200 had been resettled, a further 3 651 had arrived, 727 had been born and 28 had died in Hong Kong, and the refugee population stood at 12 770.
In July 1982. faced with the prospect of a continuing need to provide accommodation for refugees, the government had introduced a policy to discourage future arrivals by detaining them in closed refugee centres in the remoter parts of the territory. Under this policy of humane deterrence, which followed measures already adopted elsewhere in the region to cope with this enduring problem, refugees are confined in government- administered closed centres until such time as they are resettled overseas. Refugees in these centres are not allowed to find outside work; visits are strictly regulated and generally limited to relatives and close friends; and, for their own protection, refugees are subject to a certain amount of discipline and control.
This policy has been maintained in 1983. Three main centres have already been opened -- at Chi Ma Wan. Hei Ling Chau and Cape Collinson, and a fourth centre outside Tuen Mun will be opened in January 1984. At the year's end, 5 723 refugees were accommodated in closed centres. The centres are administered by the Correctional Services Department, medical services are provided by the Medical and Health Department, and social and educational services are provided by various voluntary agencies working in the camps.
Accommodating Vietnamese refugees in these centres places its own financial burden on Hong Kong, and cost the government $143 million in 1983. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) contributed $19 million to the cost of maintaining refugees in these centres during the year. There were signs in 1983 that the policy of humane
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deterrence was achieving its aim of making Hong Kong less attractive as a destination than had previously been the case. During the year, 3 651 refugees arrived in Hong Kong, 53.4 per cent less than the 7 840 who had arrived in 1982. This fall cannot be put down to any single factor. The closed centre policy, adverse weather conditions during the peak arrival season, a lack of boats in Vietnam, the growth of the Orderly Departure Programme, and a crackdown on illegal departures by the Vietnam Government, have all played a part. It is gratifying to see that for the first time in four years Hong Kong has shared in the regional trend for the number of new arrivals to decline year by year.
Unfortunately, the number of Vietnamese refugees being resettled from Hong Kong has continued to decline even faster. The only countries which continued to provide on-going resettlement quotas for Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong in 1983 were the United States, Canada and Australia. Besides these, small but very welcome quotas were given to Hong Kong by Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Other countries continued to accept refugees only for family reunion, or when they had been rescued at sea by a ship bearing that country's flag. As a consequence only 4 200 refugees were resettled from Hong Kong in 1983, compared with 9 247 resettled in 1982. With little reason for optimism over the prospects for 1984, the Hong Kong Government continued to press for the resettlement of all new arrivals, and of the 12 770 left from previous years, by any country with room to take them. For those 7047 who arrived before the change in policy in July 1982 and were increasingly referred to by refugee agencies as the "hardcore" of the refugee problem, life continued in the two older open centres much as before. Refugees in these centres are not confined and adults are allowed to take up temporary employment with which to support themselves and their families, with few restrictions on their movements within or without the centres. At the end of the year, there were 4 358 refugees remaining in the Kai Tak Transit Centre run by the Hong Kong Red Cross, and 2 636 in the Jubilee Transit Centre run by Caritas Hong Kong. At the present rate of departure it will take six years to resettle the remainder. Hong Kong was conspicuous in the region in having some 4 295 Vietnamese refugees who had already spent more than two years in open centres in the territory, and as the year closed many of these refugees were having to come to terms with the prospect of remaining in refugee centres for some time to come.
Tourism
During the year Hong Kong earned an estimated $11.026 billion (up 25.7 per cent over the 1982 figure) from the 2 775 014 visitors staying in the territory (also up by 6.4 per cent over 1982).
Hong Kong Tourist Association
The Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) is responsible for handling tourism and for proposing plans for its development. A statutory body set up by the government, the HKTA co-ordinates the activities of the industry and advises the government on measures for ensuring its growth. The chairman and members of its board of management are appointed by the Governor. The HKTA is financed by a subvention from general revenue to which visitors contribute directly by way of a five per cent tax on hotel room charges. Members of the association also contribute through membership dues and a variety of co-operative activities.
The HKTA has its headquarters in the Connaught Centre, on the waterfront of Hong Kong Island. Information offices for visitors are maintained at three other locations: Hong Kong International Airport, the Star Ferry Concourse in Kowloon, and the Government