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unwillingness to accept returning refugees. A recent call by HMA in Hanoi on the Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs enabled him to float the possibility of repatriation. This produced a negative
response.
7.
Meanwhile, impatience in Hong Kong over the Vietnamese refugee situation has been growing as the resettlement rate drops
OMELCO and no real long-term solution appears to be in sight. members have recently suggested publicly that Hong Kong should be allowed to approach Hanoi directly to urge repatriation of Vietnamese "economic migrants". The Hong Kong Government has rejected this suggestion on the grounds that Hong Kong's constitutional position would not permit an approach of this type. Even if it was possible to make such an approach our experience with the Vietnamese has shown that it would be extremely unlikely to produce any positive results at all.
8.
It is possible that a proposal for an international conference on the Vietnamese refugee situation (like that convened on the Indochina refugee problem in 1979 by the UN) may be aired during Lord Glenarthur's visit. It is our view that a conference dealing with Vietnamese refugees in isolation from the Indo-Chinese refugee problem as a whole would not attract international support. We believe that the ICG (para 5) is a less public, but more effective forum for discussing the Indo Chinese refugee problem
9.
Such an
This would
The OMELCO ad hoc group chairman, Mrs Rita Fan has also privately suggested to the Hong Kong Government a radical new approach to cop ing with newly arriving Vietnamese. involve denying new arrivals the classification "refugees" and treating them as illegal immigrants, to be detained in Hong Kong until their repatriation to Vietnam.
extreme approach would attract the criticism that since the arrivals would not be screened, genuine refugees (a fair number of whom are still arriving in Hong Kong) would be treated as illegal immigrants. It is most unlikely that the Hong Kong Government would accept such a proposal, but Mrs Fan's suggestion exemplifies the hardening of attitudes in Hong Kong over the Vietnamese refugee issue.
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