VIETNAMESE MIGRANTS: SUPPLEMENTARIES
ANNEX B
Orderly Repatriation Programme
- ORP is in accordance with Comprehensive Plan of Action approved in
1989 by Second International Conference on Indo-Chinese Refugees.
Vietnamese assurance that no returnees will face persecution.
Monitoring in Vietnam by UNHCR, British Embassy and NGOs. No
evidence whatever of ill-treatment by authorities in more than 20,000 cases, including returns from the first asylum countries in
the region.
Not humane to keep migrants in camps indefinitely. Illegal
immigrants (ie those found not to be refugees) have no access to
resettlement.
To ensure that genuine refugees are protected and resettled,
economic migrants must return to their country of origin, in
accordance with international practice.
Phase I of the Programme (agreed with the Vietnamese on 29 October
1991) involved the repatriation of non-refugees who arrived in Hong Kong after that date.
Agreement on the return of double backers (those who, having already been voluntarily-repatriated, returned to Hong Kong in the hope of collecting a further UNHCR repatriation allowance) was reached on 17 October 1991).
We have now returned 123 non-refugees (75 double backers and 48
recent arrivals including family members) in addition to the 51 who were repatriated in December 1989.
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