RESTRICTED
24. The Orderly Departure Programme
The Orderly Departure Programme is an administrative arrangement to enable people who meet the UK's standard family reunion criteria under our immigration rules, and who are therefore
entitled to enter the UK, to leave Vietnam. The programme was put
in place in 1979 to facilitate a legitimate channel for departures
from Vietnam for those eligible, and thereby to reduce the pressure
for illegal departures. The rate of departure under the programme is controlled by the Vietnamese authorities and any of those
eligible have already waited years to be permitted to leave.
is no question of the programme being at the expense of the
resettlement of refugees from Hong Kong.
There
RESTRICTED
51