Miss Thi Minh Bui
9 MAY 1985
should dearly like to tell the two sisters that they can have their family here to resettle with them. The least that I ask is that the Government urgently look at this policy again and consider changing it along the lines recommended by the Select Committee. They could take away the agony that has been going on for years for some people.
10.13 pm
Mr. Tom Clarke (Monklands, West): I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith (Mr. Soley), and the House will want to express its gratitude to him for the eloquent, lucid and dedicated way in which he presented his case.
Just over a year ago, my hon. Friend the Member for Hamilton (Mr. Robertson) and I had the opportunity to visit these camps in Hong Kong. To get to them, we had to go by helicopter, land on a prison site, go through the prison site, and eventually we found ourselves at our destination. We found there something which reminded me of factory units in my constituency. People had been there for a very long time, in some cases for four or five years. One little boy of seven is probably still there. Although we have endorsed the Hong Kong agreement and will be relinquishing sovereignty in 1997, we still have a responsibility for these refugees.
I am very pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith has provided the House with an opportunity to debate the matter, because I believe that the House wishes to support the reunion of this family. The Minister will wish to be reminded of recommendation 4 of the Select Committee on Home Affairs:
"A considerable degree of ministerial discretion should be retained in the granting of family reunion applications." In that spirit I appeal to the Minister to respond positively to my hon. Friend. This case calls for consideration, compassion and concern. The Minister is capable of responding in that way. For that reason, I invite him to do so. I congratulate my hon. Friend on the determination with which he has pursued this admirable cause. 10.15 pm
Mr. Keith Best (Ynys Môn): The House is indebted to the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Mr. Soley) for having raised this matter. It is particularly appropriate because the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is visiting south-east Asia and Hong Kong. I speak as chairman of the British committee for Vietnamese refugees and receive very many family reunion applications which I pass on to my hon. and learned Friend the Minister of State, Home Office. I pay tribute to him for his hard work in trying to help these refugees, wherever possible. I am delighted that my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond and Barnes (Mr. Hanley), who did such sterling work on the Select Committee and in the preparation of its report, is in the Chamber.
I had the privilege of visiting these centres in January of this year. I visited Chi Ma Wan, referred to by the hon. Member for Monklands, West (Mr. Clarke), which is a closed centre. I met a woman who had been there for two years. She was unable to join her husband who is working in an open centre. That is a measure of the tragedy that is posed by this closed centre policy. It splits families in Hong Kong, let alone those who wish to come to this country to join their families. I visited also the Kai Tak and Jubilee centres. Hong Kong is doing the best that it can in the circumstances, but this country needs to make a gesture. It has already done so much to help refugees.
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Miss Thi Minh Bui
996
When I went to Hong Kong I found that only 434 people need to be accepted by this country. This means that 112 cases have close family links with people in this country. We appeal to my hon. and learned Friend to show humanity towards these people in the Hong Kong centres, many of whom have no chance of going to any other country. They can be accepted only by this country because they have close relatives living here who may be outside the normal immigration rules criteria. This plea for humanity is one which I know that my hon. and learned Friend and this Government will not reject.
10.19 pm
The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. David Waddington): I congratulate the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Mr. Soley) upon securing this Adjournment debate. Before I turn to the details of the case of Miss Bui and her relatives I think that I should set it in context by saying a few words about the camps in Hong Kong, how the present situation has arisen and about how British policy towards refugees has evolved in recent years. It is also appropriate for me to say right at the start that we as a country have nothing to be ashamed of in the way in which we have accepted refugees. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Ynys Mon (Mr. Best), who said that this country has already done much for refugees. The hon. Member for Hammersmith (Mr. Soley) said that we have not been other than generous. It is necessary to bear that in mind right from the start. We have no historic links with Vietnam, yet we have done a great deal to help to resolve this human tragedy.
When the Vietnamese boat people first began arriving in Hong Kong in the 1970s, they were settled in open camps and they were able to move freely within the territory and take employment. That remains the situation in the open camps today. However, because of the continuing large numbers of refugees arriving in Hong Kong and the pressures therefore imposed on a small crowded territory, closed camps had to be introduced in July 1982. They were set up by the Hong Kong authorities as a humane means of discouraging other Vietnamese from coming to Hong Kong and all refugees arriving in Hong Kong since July 1982 have been placed in them.
The result is that at present about half the 11,200 Vietnamese in the camps are in the open and half in the closed camps, and inevitably in the camps are relatives of people who have already found permanent refuge in Western countries, including Britain, separated perhaps from the other members of their family by the very circumstances of their escape from Vietnam.
When the number of Vietnamese refugees entering the United Kingdom was small, we operated a generous family reunion policy. Spouses, unmarried children under 21, parents and unmarried brothers and sisters under 21 were all allowed to come and join the person who had been admitted originally. But the House will remember that in 1979 we agreed to take a quota of 10,000 Vietnamese and by 1981 there were going on for 16,000 in this country.
Furthermore, that number was going to grow pretty quickly because of our obligation to accept boat people rescued by British ships and our willingness to take others direct from Vietnam under the orderly departure programme.
On top of that we had our commitments towards refugees of many other nationalities. It was in those circumstances that in July 1981 we announced new criteria
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