ว
THE PRIME MINISTER
ET MON
10 DOWNING STREET
LONDON SWIA 2AA
нко 243 112
- 5J
28 December 1988
Jean Tess Juan This
You wrote to me, and to some of my colleagues, on 17 November about Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong.
I am very conscious of the burden that this problem has imposed on Hong Kong for more than a decade. Hong Kong has responded most generously in offering temporary refuge to
over 130,000 boat people from Vietnam. None has ever been turned away. This is an exemplary record, of which Hong Kong can be proud.
The British Government too have played their full part.
It was our initiative which led to the Geneva Conference in
1979, when there were nearly 70,000 arrivals in Hong Kong from Vietnam. The arrangements which were agreed at that Conference have served Hong Kong well. Nearly 110,000 boat
people have been resettled from Hong Kong since 1979, and
13,000 of these have come to the United Kingdom. Our record
on resettlement certainly bears comparison with that of other countries which, unlike Britain, have continuing programmes of large-scale immigration.
We all recognise that the position in Hong Kong has
changed dramatically in the last twelve months. We gave our full support to the change of policy put into effect by the
Hong Kong Government on 16 June. We have since been most
active in pursuing the international aspects of that new policy in bilateral discussions with the Vietnamese
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