CONFIDENTIAL
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
POLICY PAPER
I
INTRODUCTION
(22)
MKK 243/5.
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
14 MAY 1985
DESK ON Fires
INDEX
牛
PA
الله
Tion. Taken
1.
This paper surveys the problem of Vietnamese refugees in Hong
Kong, attempts to predict how it will develop if policy remains as
it is now, and sets out possible options for improving the
position.
II BACKGROUND
2.
cd
a
About 1.5 million people have left Indo-China since 1975,
1975, over
million of them Vietnamese. Over half a million boat refugees from
Vietnam have arrived in first asylum countries including Hong Kong
and many more have certainly perished en route. Since 1979 over
72,000 Vietname se have left Vietnam under the Orderly Departure
Programme (ODP) administered by the UNHCR with Vietnamese Government
cooperation. Currently over 160,000 Indo-Chinese (some 36,000
Vietnamese) await resettlement in camps in the area.
104,000 Vietnamese have reached Hong Kong since 1975; none have been
turned away.
elsewhere.
A11 have been placed in
Hong Kong have themselves
camps pending resettlement
accepted 14,500 displaced
Indo-Chinese, mostly from Vietnam, for permanent settlement. Hong
Kong's refugee population has now remained steady at 12-13,000 for
about two years.
This is more than the numbers of Vietname se
refugees in any of the South East Asian countries awaiting
resettlement, eg Malaysia (9,000), Indonesia (7,000), Philippines
(2,000).
1979 GENEVA CONFERENCE
UK RESPONSE TO VIETNAMESE REFUGEE PROBLEM
3.
I t
was
In January 1979, HMG agreed to admit 1,500 refugees from
Indo-China, in addition to the 300 or SO already here.
decided that, because of Our responsibilities. for the territory
1,000 of these should come from Hong Kong. In July 1979, at UK
initiative, a conference was held in Geneva to deal with the
worsening refugee crisis. At that conference, the UK agreed to take
a further quota of 10,000 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong.
At the same conference a general consensus emerged, though it is not
recorded formally in any document, to confer group refugee status on
CONFIDENTIAL