CONFIDENTIAL
Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong
8.
The population of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong has
icnreased from 8,000 at the beginning of 1987 to over 9,300 now.
This has led to increased demands in Hong Kong that more must be
done to resolve the problem. In particular Hong Kong wants to
establish an arrangement whereby economic migrants are separated
from genuine refugees and repatriated to Vietnam under acceptable
guarantees. Line to take: HMG have agreed to take 468 more refugees
from Hong Kong over the next two years. This more than maintains
recent levels of intake from Hong Kong. UK has overall taken about
13,000 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong, behind only the US and Canada. Every sympathy with Hong Kong: we are urging other countries to accept more for resettlement and to help us in search
for other durable solutions.
CONFIDENTIAL