VI NAMESE BOAT PEOPLE: DRAFT ARTICLE
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Since 1975, over 130,000 boat people have arrived in Hong Kong
from Vietnam.
- Over that long and difficult period, the response from Britain,
Hong Kong, and other western Governments has been generous.
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20,000 refugees from Indo-China have come to Britain since 1975.
13,000 are Vietnamese boat people from Hong Kong.
And our efforts have been instrumental in persuading other
countries to respond. The United States has taken over 60,000,
Canada nearly 20,000, Australia about 6,000 from Hong Kong.
But this generosity could not be open-ended. And, instead of
getting better, by the end of 1987 the problem got dramatically
worse.
First, the sheer number of boat people arriving in Hong Kong increased sharply.
In the first half of 1988 over 9,000 boat people
arrived in Hong Kong. This was nearly three times the number of
arrivals in 1987, well over four times the number in 1986, and
almost eight times the number in 1985.
Second, we began to see a new kind of boat person. Very few of
the recent arrivals were fleeing political or religious persecution. They were not genuine refugees under agreed international criteria.
The root of their discontent was economic.
We could not go on offering sanctuary to the victims of Vietnam's dismal economic performance.
They could not expect resettlement outside Hong Kong. And their prospects in Hong Kong itself were non-existent. We had to stop
them coming, for everybody's sake.
There was only one way to do
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We had to draw the line
somewhere.
that.
Set a starting date for a new policy.