Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
11 April 1990
FILE
нко
47
From The Minister of State
The Hon Francis Maude MP
Neville Trotter Esq JP, FCA, MP House of Commons London SW1A OAA
HKB 243/4
Dear Mr Trotter,
David Mellor has passed to me your letter of 2 March to him about the concern over the conditions in the Vietnamese boat people camps in Hong Kong expressed by your constituent, the Reverend David Mumford of 24 Cleveland Road, North Shields NE29 ONG.
The Hong Kong authorities faced enormous difficulties during the last sailing season in 1989 when boat people were arriving at a rate of up to 1,000 per day. It is greatly to their credit that they managed to accommodate such a huge influx despite appalling practical difficulties. Inevitably, there were times when conditions in the camps were far from ideal.
But Hong Kong embarked on a large (and expensive) programme to build camps to accommodate the influx.
Conditions in the camps have improved considerably: new accommodation is coming on stream and boat people have already been moved from temporary accommodation on ferries.
All those who arrived before 16 June 1988 have refugee status and are now being progressively resettled in the West. Refugees are able to leave the camps to find employment during the day. Under present arrangements, most refugees should have left Hong Kong by the end of the year.
Those who have arrived since 16 June 1988 will be screened to determine whether or not they qualify for refugee status (under criteria laid down by the 1951 UN Convention and 1967 protocol on refugees): those who are not refugees await return to Veitnam.
In 1989 Hong Kong spent over £100 million on care and maintenance of the boat people. Because of this great