18 Apr 89
FE/0437 A3/6
рах а
SW
17/9
XINHUA COMMENTARY: VIETNAMESE BOAT
EOPLE "AN UNSTABLE FACTOR ÎN
HONGKONG
CIET
13
Xinhua (Hongkong service) in Chinese 1253 gmt 12 Apr 89
Text of commentary, “An unstable factor in Hongkong: The Vietnamese boat people stranded in Hongkong”
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According to a report by the Secretary for Security of the Hongkong government, by 11th April, the number of Vietnamese boat people arriving in Hongkong in 1989 had reached 2,060 people, or more than twice as many as in the same period last year. Thus, the total number of Vietnamese refugees and boat people tranded in Hongkong had increased to 27,222 people. The issue of Vietnamese boat people once again evoked serious concerns among people in various circles in Hongkong.
Now, various remand centres in Hongkong have become full and the Hongkong government could not but reopen an old military camp in Sai Kung to house about 2,000 Vietnamese boat people, even though the camp has been designated as the site for building a new university.
The large number of Vietnamese refugees and boat people stranded in Hongkong has brought a heavy burden to, and produced a great social pressure on Hongkong, and this has become an unstable factor in Hongkong society that must not be neglected.
In the late 1970s, Hongkong became one of the "primary collecting harbours". After that, large numbers of Vietnamese people braved the waves on the rough seas and arrived in Hongkong group after group. However, most Vietnamese people arriving in Hongkong are not political refugees, as defined by the UN refugee convention as "people who are probably persecuted for racial, religious and nationality reasons or due to their specific social class backgrounds or their political opinions”. Most of them just took Hongkong as a springboard for seeking a better livelihood in the West.
Even if they are real refugees, they will still have to be stranded in Hongkong for a long time, because of the very limited quotas for receiving refugees in various countries. This led to a sharp increase in the number of refugees stranded in Hongkong to nearly 15,000 people.
According to statistics, from 1978 to 1988, the Hongkong government spent over 1.03bn Hongkong dollars in housing and feeding the Vietnamese boat people. This expenditure has put a heavy burden on the Hongkong residents. Moreover, the burden will far exceed this and will become heavier as long as the problem of boat people is not thoroughly solved.
In the 1988-89 fiscal year, the Hongkong government spent 584m Hongkong dollars on housing and feeding the Vietnamese boat people and this amount was more than four times the amount in the previous fiscal year. If the annual expenditure on this item is 400m Hongkong dollars, then by 1997, the total expenditure will reach 3.2bn Hongkong dollars. This huge amount can be used to finance more institutions of higher learning so as to promote the development of education, science and technology.
The Vietnamese boat people have also produced major social pressure on Hongkong, especially regarding social order. Some Vietnamese boat people have created disturbances,
committed thefts and had fights. In particular, the local residents near the remand centres now have a grudge against the Vietnamese boat people and this has become a new social problem which affects Hongkong's stability and prosperity. According to relevant sources, the incidence of crimes among the Vietnamese boat people was as high as 3% compared with 1% among the [other] residents in Hongkong.
In order to check the unceasing tide of boat people from Vietnam, last June, the Hongkong government began to carry out a screening policy. Boat people who are found not to be refugees through the screening procedures will be confined in the remand centres before they are eventually repatriated to Vietnam. However, there are many difficulties in fulfilling the screening procedures. Due to Vietnam's attitude, repatriation
has made little progress. From the beginning of the screening procedures to early March, only one batch of 75 non-refugees were repatriated to Vietnam and it took nine months to accomplish this. If things go on at such a slow speed, it will take a very long time to repatriate all the boat people. As 1997 is drawing near, if the refugee problem is not solved, it will certainly become a heavy burden for the future Hongkong Special Administrative Region [SAR] government.
Not long ago, the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated the Chinese government's position on the issue of Vietnamese boat people stranded in Hongkong. That is, the British government is responsible for taking effective measures to solve this issue before 1997. If this problem is not properly solved in good time, it will inevitably affect the smooth takeover in 1997 and will add uncalled-for burdens to the future government in the Hongkong SAR.
In addition, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry also said: “According to the relevant stipulations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the Vietnamese refugees and boat people as well as their children born in Hongkong cannot enjoy the right of abode in Hongkong."
Recently, at the international conference on screening Indochinese refugees sponsored by the UN refugee organisation, the representatives of various countries and regions reached an extensive consensus of opinion on offering temporary shelter to the refugees and on screening refugees. They hoped that measures would be adopted to speed up the screening procedures and boat people who could not be resettled in a third country would be repatriated as quickly as possible.
At present, many people in Hongkong, including the members of the executive and legislative councils and some senior government officials, are looking forward to the adoption of a further measure or the policy for "definite repatriation" of the boat people, as all European and American countries repatriate
repatriate all illegal immigrants indiscriminately.
However, the thorough settlement of the Vietnamese refugee problem will still depend on the sincerity of the Vietnamese authorities. Not long ago, at an international conference on the refugee problem in Kuala Lumpur, Vu Khoan, the assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, indicated that his government is willing to co-operate with other countries in finding a solution to this issue. However, Vietnam still insisted that it would only receive people who voluntarily returned home.