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DSR 11C (Revised 5/87)
demonstrating that we understand the problems that matter
most to the local community. It will also require a
readiness by HMG to play our full part, and to be seen to
be doing so, in helping the Hong Kong authorities to
tackle these problems.
VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
16. Since 1979, Hong Kong has given temporary asylum to
over 130,000 Indo Chinese refugees, of whom well over
100,000 have been resettled abroad. The number of boat
people in Hong Kong had been steadily diminishing until
1987, when a new exodus began. In 1988, 18,000 boat
people arrived in Hong Kong:
camps is now about 25,000.
the total population in the
That has created a major
political problem in Hong Kong: it is a source of deep
and growing concern amongst Hong Kong people and there is
much resentment over the marked contrast between the
policy of giving asylum to all boat people and the prompt
the repatriation of all illegal immigrants from China:
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 solving the problem
before 1997 and are coming under increasing pressure from