4.
CONFIDENTIAL
International
According to UNHCR figures there were at the end of
1985 some 160,500 refugees in the various camps of the
countries of first asylum in the region. Of these
countries, Thailand, with its contiguous land borders, is
hardest pressed. It contains some 130,000 people
formally recognised as refugees (including some 90,000
Lao). Thailand also contains some 230,000 Cambodians who
have not been formally classified as refugees but as
displaced persons, whom Thailand intends to return to
Cambodia when conditions there permit.
assistance to these has been coordinated through the UN
Border Relief Operation, set up in 1983. Hong Kong, with
its limited land area and its high population, beset
already with the problem of legal and illegal entry from
China, has also faced particularly severe problems.
11,000 Vietnamese refugees are now housed in the various
types of centre. (A note on Hong Kong's Chinese and
Vietnamese refugees is at Appendix A.) The Hong Kong
Government is particularly concerned about the declining
rate of resettlement of refugees from Hong Kong and the
problems of long-stayers, refugees who have not been
resettled for many years.
5.
Some
8500
Concern about the never-ending flow of refugees has
become widespread, and the rate of resettlement has
slackened. Concomitantly, a number of governments have
recognised that refugees are departing more and more from
economic motives and are beginning to suggest that
avenues for resettlement should be closed or made much
more difficult for economic migrants.
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CONFIDENTIAL