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Governor's question and answer session in LegCo
Following is the transcript of the Governor the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's question and answer session in the Legislative Council today (Thursday):
The President: The Governor will answer questions on the four topics which have been indicated to Members. A Member who has asked a question may for the purpose of seeking elucidation only ask a short follow-up question. Show of hands please. Dr David Li.
Dr David Li: Sir, Government officials have openly admitted that it's not possible to return all Vietnamese boat people by the original target date of the end of 1995, and more than 100 boat people will be released into the open camp. Will you please inform this Council whether there will be a clear solution to the problem before 1997, in order to clear the refugee camps before the handover to China?
Governor: That is of course what we're working very hard to achieve and we'll keep on doing so. I think it's important to put our efforts into context. We've seen probably a more successful programme of repatriation from Hong Kong than anywhere else in the Region. We've seen the return of I think it's now over 44,000 migrants from Vietnam back to their own country and the difficulties that we had last year were partly associated with the fact that understandably we had to interrupt the mandatory programme after the unfortunate events at Whitehead. I think that that had an effect on the flow of those who were voluntary returning to Vietnam. The figures for voluntary returnees had been running at about 1,000 a month, about 12,000 a year for the previous two years and I think that represented extremely satisfactory progress. I hope that we'll be able to see the programme picking up again and it remains, as we've been arguing very strongly in Kuala Lumpur in the last couple of days, it remains our objective to see the return of those migrants as rapidly as possible.
I'd just add a couple of points. Vietnam is turning itself into one of the more successful economies in the Region and I think that people in the Region and outside regard it as astonishing that migrants should be declining to return to an economy which is picking up speed so rapidly, not least thanks to substantial investment from Hong Kong.
Secondly, the Regional Programme has I hope received a boost, a stimulus with the Kuala Lumpur meeting, that was preparing the way for another meeting of the participants in the Programme, probably early next month in Geneva, when I hope that we'll be able to see substantive progress which will enable us to get on top of this problem once and for all. But I do want to add, as I've said to the Council before, that those who actually implement the Programme and make it work, not least members of our Correctional Services Department, deserve the understanding and thanks of this Council and of the whole community.