V
HUD 243/11.
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Handed to sups 47 Sys 41 in chung King
дальй
A statement on the issue of "Vietnamese Refugees
made by Members of the Southern District Board
Чь
Vietnamese Refugees continue to flood in since Hong Kong adopted the
policy of being a port of first asylum in 1975. Up to this financial year,
there are about 13,000 "Vietnamese Refugees" stuck in Hong Kong. Albeit
the Hong Kong Government implemented the closed centre policy in 1982, the
influx of Vietnamese continues. In shorter than a month in May 1988, the
number of people flooding in from Vietnam has exceeded 2,000. It is
expected that in the coming few months the number of influx of people
from Vietnam will continue to increase.
Since 1979 the combination of "Vietnamese Refugees" arriving Hong Kong
has changed greatly. The survey conducted in 1987 indicates that 60% of
Vietnamese arrivals from the sea left their homeland for economic reasons.
On the other hand, the speed of accepting the Vietnamese Refugees for
resettlement by the western countries has already been very slow and in
the recent years, coming to a stand still. In addition, the anti-immigration
trend engaged in other countries has given rise to the chance of resettling
these "Vietnamese Refugees" overseas becomes more and more slim.
Since 1979 Hong Kong Government has spent over 900 million dollars on
the refugees problem. In the year 1986/87 alone, Government had spent
120 million dollars. Now, the issue of "Vietnamese Refugees" becomes a
heavy bruden to the people of Hong Kong and will definitely affect the
stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. We consider now has reached the
stage that the policy on Vietnamese Refugees should be reviewed. We
therefore propose that:-
(1) the policy of Hong Kong being a port of first asylum should be
abolished; henceforth Vietnamese arrivals will no longer be
"Refugees" but "Illegal Immigrants"; and they should be
repatriated back to their homeland in due course;