At
by
first the refugees were resettled fairly quickly
other countries. Recently, however, it has become much
more difficult to find resettlement places for them. As
a
be en there for considerable
cases up to six years.
result many of the refugees in Hong Kong S camps have
lengths of time, in some
As I said when I gave oral evidence to
the Sub-Committee
on Race Relations and Immigration on 4 February, neither
we
nor the Hong Kong Government regard it as satisfactory
To this end we
or desirable that refugees should have to remain in
camps: Our objective mus t be to find durable solutions
for all of them as soon as possible.
maintain regular dialogue with the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other resettlement
countries. 3,694 refugees we re resettled from Hong Kong
in 1984. Meanwhile, in cooperation with UNHCR, the Hong
Kong Government make
every effort to ensure that the
refugees' basic needs are provided for while they rem a in
in Hong Kong: they
provided with shelter, food,
clothing, education, welfare and
medical treatment,
training facilities.
are
The Agreement with China on the future of Hong Kong
contains no specific provision relating to Vietnamese
refugees. Our aim is in an y case to ensure that all the
refugees are resettled well before 1997.
does however provide that Hong Kong's laws will remain
basically unchanged after 1 July 1997.
The Agreement
In the case of
Vietnamese refugees, the relevant legislation is the Hong
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