VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE
Current Position
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17. There are over 55,000 Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong, of
whom 11,700 are refugees. The remainder are subject to the
e
so far
screening process: some 6200 have been determined not to be refugees
BUL
and await return to Vietnam. (Only 100 of these have volunteered to
#negy 1200 So far people have returned to Vietnam voluntarily, and
E
return.
NP
51 non-volunteers were returned on 12 December 1989. Lord Ennals
and Mr Timothy Raison MP visited Vietnam in January to report on the
return of treatment of the non-volunteers, and established that they were not
being subjected to any ill-treatment. The British Government would
prefer, however, that UNIIER extend their monitoring activities to
cover all who return to Vietnam The Geneva International
what shoul Conference Steering Committee has so far failed to agree on how to
be done with repatriate those who are not refugees but who do not volunteer to
mandator return. A consensus that other than voluntary repatriation could
a fur begin en 1 July 1990 was blocked by the United States, whe insisted
on 1 January 1991, and Vietnam which proposed 1 October 1990. The
we ar British Covernment is concerned that any moratorium will simply
encourage a further unmanageable outflow from Vietnam during 1990,
rather than act as a deterrent.
number of
which
18. Mr Francis Maude, Minister of State, visited Hanoi from 18-21
February for bilateral discussions with the Vietnamese. Agreement
retuned to Vietnam way was reached that the fate of acceptance of volunteers would rise to
around 1,000 a month by 1 May 1990.
non- voumniary Negotiations en acceptance of
that
non volunteers would continue, with a view to agreement by the end
of February.
British Approach
19. In the continuing absence of a full Steering Committee
consensus, we are examining the possibility of implementing the Geneva consensus on a regional basis, though agreement between
places of first asylum and Vietnam. The cooperation of the UNHCR
will would be crucial. If the United States continues to block the
consensus, UNHCR may find it difficult to undertake a role which
CP2AIU
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