POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION
In practice, it means 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 and will be repatriated as soon as possible.
On February 22, 2000, the Government 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 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 2002, a total of 955 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 be continued to repatriate the ineligible Vietnamese migrants.
Home Pages
Security Bureau: http://www.gov.hk/sb
Immigration Department: http://www.gov.hk/immd
Census and Statistics Department: http://www.gov.hk/censtatd
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