repat tion of all illegal immigrants from China: the
boat people problem is widely seen in Hong Kong as an
acid test of Britain's responsibility towards the
territory. We are helping the Hong Kong authorities to
tackle it by giving our full support of their policy of
screening and repatriation introduced in June 1988; by
our talks with the Vietnamese on repatriation of those
who are screened out as non refugees; and by our
initiative to stimulate a new international resettlement
effort. We are publicly committed to doing all we can to
solve the problem before 1997 and are coming under
increasing pressure from Hong Kong people to demonstrate
our determination and ability to do so. The forthcoming
International Conference on Indo-Chinese refugees (likely
to be held in June) should provide a useful opportunity
to make progress on both repatriation and resettlement.
It will enable us to emphasise the need for a solution at
an international level, but Hong Kong and the
international community will expect Britain to take a
lead in shouldering its share of the responsibility
including doing more on resettlement.
will seriously damage our credibility in the territory.
Failure to do so
EMIGRATION
17. The other key problem of concern to Hong Kong is
emigration. Hong Kong, with its highly mobile
population, has always had a strong tradition of
emigration (just as it has been subject to fluctuating