6
THE BOAT REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM
including those arising from the armed conflict with Vietnam during which army units had to be moved to the war zone away from the Hong Kong border area.
About 80 per cent of the boat refugees coming from Vietnam were of Chinese ethnic origin, and by April the accounts which they gave on arrival confirmed that the Chinese community in Vietnam was being systematically forced out of the country. It was also becoming increasingly clear that Hong Kong was getting unfavourable treatment in terms of resettlement. While it was receiving about 35 per cent of the boat people landing on Southeast Asian shores, it was being awarded only 12 per cent of resettlement places.
Comparisons with Malaysia, which had started to tow some boats back to sea (but from which refugees were being resettled at a monthly rate of 3,000 in contrast to Hong Kong's 600 a month), were inevitable; and it was not surprising that some voices were raised calling for tougher action to deter the boat people. But the government held fast to a humanitarian line, which was summed up by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lewis Davies, when he declared in April: 'I do not believe it would be right or to Hong Kong's credit to send to sea a heavily overloaded ship, thus committing people to the deep, on the basis that they can take their chance somewhere else."
The situation reached its worst in May and June. In May, 18,688 refugees arrived and only 500 were resettled; in June, 19,651 arrived and only 1,608 were resettled.
Yet, in those same two months, international interest in the crisis was beginning to stir. In May, the British Government decided to accept 1,004 refugees rescued by the British cargo ship, Sibonga, and the Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, called for an international conference on the problem. The process of winning the world's attention continued in June when the Governor visited London, New York, Washington and Geneva to express warnings that if nothing effective was done internationally patience in the recipient terri- tories could snap, with disastrous results.
'The number of people coming out of Vietnam is straining the humanity of countries nearby to breaking point,' he said on June 13 on his arrival in London - and he repeated the same warning in meetings with United States government officials in Washington, with senior United Nations staff in New York and with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva. Asked to comment on the fact that refugees were being forcibly repulsed from some territories, he gave the grim reminder that 'desperate people do desperate things'.
When he returned to Hong Kong, Sir Murray was able to confirm that the British Government had agreed to reinforce the Hong Kong garrison with an additional unit of infantry, to help the three battalions whose resources were fully stretched along the border in operations to catch illegal immigrants. Britain was also to supply Hong Kong with a fast patrol boat and other equipment.
In regard to the refugee crisis, he welcomed the fact that the world's attention had been captured, adding it was essential that the pressure of publicity be maintained. In particular, he welcomed the decision of the United Nations Secretary-General to arrange an inter- national conference on the subject. This conference at Geneva, which resulted in pledges of a world-wide resettlement programme and an undertaking by the Vietnam Government to take steps to suspend the 'illegal' departure of refugees, followed a month later, on July 20-1. It came none too soon. On July 21, the refugee camps in Hong Kong held a total of 66,038 people.
Life in the Camps
As the influx of Vietnamese refugees began to build up in the early months of 1979, the Hong Kong Government acted in close liaison with the United Nations High Commission