SPEAKING NOTE
EX-CHINA VIETNAMESE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS (EQVII'S)
In the past three weeks, there has been a new and alarming surge in arrivals in Hong Kong of ECVII's. The numbers involved are already causing us concern: if the surge continues it will
rge create serious problems. We would be grateful for the urgent assistance of China in stemming the flow of new arrivals.
No ECVII's arrived in Hong Kong in 1992. The flow picked up in
January 1993 but the current surge began on 25 June. Since
then, over 400 have arrived.
All of the arrivals in this period have told us that they have
come from Guangxi Province All have lived in China since 1979 or earlier and are ethnic Chinese. They have explained that they came to Hong Kong because the local authorities in Guangxi had demolished the homes which they had built. They have claimed that as many as 7,000 homes have been demolished in this way, making up to 40,000 people homeless.
If urgent action is not taken to deter them, many more of those who have recently lost their homes will almost certainly try to follow the recent arrivals to Hong Kong. Some may already be on
their way.
Experience has shown that the only effective way to discourage further arrivals is for those who arrive in Hong Kong to be returned rapidly to China.
Two earlier episodes support this conclusion. The largest influx of ECVIT's into Hong Kong was from June to September 1987, with the arrival of over 7,400. With the cooperation of
the Chinese authorities, all of these were returned to Guangdong
note.viet.NAT
SLM