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"Particularly at this juncture, we should be seeking ways to reinforce, and not to dilute that message," he said.
Mr Lai said he could well understand the community's sentiment and the wish to see an early end to the VM problem, but "we should not let our heart rule our head".
"What we need is clear thinking on the best means of achieving our objective of early repatriation of the 21,000 VMs in camps here. Calls for the UK to take every one who may be here in 1997 is guaranteed to make it impossible to achieve our common objective," he said.
Recapping the progress that has been made towards a resolution of the VM problem since the CPA was agreed, Mr Lai noted that since 1989, some 47,000 migrants had returned to Vietnam and 27,000 refugees had left Hong Kong for overseas resettlement.
Today, there are still 22,000 VMs and refugees in the territory. However, Hong Kong has come a long way since that population peaked at 64,000 in late 1991.
Mr Lai noted that almost 46,000 migrants had chosen to return voluntarily to Vietnam and that another 1,600 were returned under the Orderly Repatriation Programme (ORP) introduced in 1991.
"Already this year, over 50 per cent more migrants have been returned under the ORP than in any previous year.
"The Vietnamese Government has also agreed that the pace of ORP should be stepped up; that is evidenced by the fact that in the last ORP exercise, we had two flights of returnees instead of one in the past. At another ORP operation starting tomorrow, we can continue on this course," he said.
On the serious blow dealt to voluntary repatriation by legislative initiatives in the US Congress, Mr Lai said the Government had made representations to the US Administration, which remained committed to the CPA.
As for the US Administration's negotiations with the Vietnamese authorities on the "TRACK II" arrangements, under which non-refugees who satisfy certain criteria would be eligible for resettlement in the US after they have returned to Vietnam, Mr Lai said while this proposal per se might not necessarily prompt large numbers of VMs in Hong Kong to volunteer to go home, it would reintroduce certainty into the principle and objective of the CPA.