Against this background, the Hong Kong Government introduced in July 1982 a policy of placing newly arriving refugees in closed centres, from which they are not permitted to seek outside employment. This step was taken with great reluctance, but it was considered essential to try to discourage people from setting out from Vietnam for Hong Kong. The arrival rate has since slowed but a flow nevertheless continues.
We are most concerned about the plight of these refugees and, as I said when I gave evidence to the Race Relations and Immigration Sub-Committee on 4 February, we would like nothing better than to see the end of the closed centre policy. It is neither satisfactory nor desirable, and our objective must be to achieve a durable solution as fast as possible. Unfortunately, as long as the problem lasts, there does not seem to be any alternative for the Hong Kong Government but to continue the policy of closed centres.
Our aim is to ensure that the refugees are all resettled well before 1997. We are making every effort to ensure that this happens and maintain regular contacts with the UNHCR and other countries for this purpose. In the event that any Vietnamese refugees did remain after 1997, there are no grounds for thinking that their status would be any different from what it is now. The Agreement on the future of Hong Kong provides that Hong Kong laws will remain basically unchanged after 1997. In the case of Vietnamese refugees the relevant legislation is the Hong Kong Immigration Ordinance, which contains a special provision under which Vietnamese refugees may be allowed to remain in Hong Kong, pending resettlement elsewhere. I would add that the Chinese themselves have an admirable record of providing asylum to Indo-Chinese refugees: around a quarter of a million have been resettled there.
I am returning the enclosure to your letter, a copy of which has been retained for our files.
cc: Mr Waddington
HOME OFFICE.
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Rich)