POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION
422
naturalisation as Chinese nationals, 83 applications for renunciation of Chinese nationality and 82 applications for restoration of Chinese nationality.
Establishment and Training
The Immigration Department had 3 962 disciplined staff and 1 659 civilian staff at the end of the year, compared with 3 995 and 1 707 respectively in 1999.
The department provides training for new and serving officers. During the year, serving officers received various types of job-related and management training. In addition, 59 were sent for overseas attachment and training.
Vietnamese Refugees and Migrants
Since 1975, Hong Kong had received more than 200 000 people from Vietnam. No Vietnamese asylum seeker had ever been turned away.
Despite its tiny size and overcrowding, Hong Kong had also absorbed some 16 000 Indo-Chinese people since the late 1970s. At the end of 2000, 97 Vietnamese refugees and 116 Vietnamese migrants remained in the HKSAR. This was after the resettlement of more than 143 000 Vietnamese refugees in other countries, the repatriation of more than 67 000 Vietnamese migrants and the local resettlement of some 1 300 Vietnamese refugees/migrants in 2000.
With the formal conclusion of the internationally agreed Comprehensive Plan of Action and in view of the changed circumstances in Vietnam, the HKSAR ended the port of first asylum policy for Vietnamese with effect from January 9, 1998.
In practice, it means that the special statutory provisions on the screening for refugee status and related review procedures for Vietnamese ceased to have effect on new arrivals from that date. These people are treated in the same way as illegal immigrants from elsewhere. That is, they will be repatriated as soon as possible.
On February 22, 2000, the HKSARG announced a Widened Local Resettlement Scheme to allow some 1 400 Vietnamese refugees and eligible Vietnamese migrants to apply for settlement in Hong Kong. As a corollary, the last refugee centre (Pillar Point Vietnamese Refugees Centre) in Hong Kong, and in the world, was closed on June 1, 2000. Thus the Vietnamese programme on which Hong Kong had worked for 25 years was concluded in an orderly, peaceful and humanitarian manner. By the end of the year, a total of 915 Vietnamese refugees and 437 Vietnamese migrants had applied under the scheme to make Hong Kong their permanent home. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will continue to seek overseas resettlement opportunities for the few remaining Vietnamese refugees who had not joined the scheme. Efforts will also continue to repatriate the ineligible Vietnamese migrants.
Ex-China Vietnamese
The Ex-China Vietnamese had settled in the Mainland before they arrived in Hong Kong irregularly. Predominantly ethnic Chinese, they fled Vietnam in the early 1980s. Having obtained asylum in the Mainland, they are considered to have no further claim for refugee status or resettlement in other countries. The Government's policy is to repatriate them to the Mainland, where they already enjoy protection.
Over the years, more than 23 700 Ex-China Vietnamese have been repatriated to the Mainland. The repatriation of the last group of Ex-China Vietnamese, involving some 350 persons, has been held up because of the judicial review proceedings they