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2.
Hong Kong is a small and overcrowded territory a harbour,
an ever spreading city, and the rest is mountains.
The built-up
areas are the most densely populated in the world. It is into
this community that the refugees have come. Their impact is
direct and dramatic. They arrive in their overloaded boats,
not to some discreetly distant island or to an open more, but
in the main harbour overlooked by millions, and unload in the
very heart of the city. It is as though, Mr Secretary General
[Mr Chairman], you had ten or twenty refugee boats coming up
the East River every day dropping anchor in front of the United
Nations Headquarters. They cannot be, they must not be, they
are not ignored.
We have turned none away. But so far the burden of
accommodation and maintenance has mostly fallen on the Hong
Kong Government. The funds available to the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees have so far only allowed his
office to look after 15,000 of the 66,000 in the territory.
With the new funds generated by your appeals before this
conference we hope that he will be able to do more.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
administers the camps for which he has accepted responsibility
through voluntary agencies. The work done by the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the voluntary
agencies is truly magnificent, and I am sure that as they
take over camps now run by the Hong Kong Government,
role will steadily increase.
their
Meanwhile it is worth recording
that the Hong Kong Government has already spent over
US$10 million this year on refugees, and that we expect to
/have