XN000022-1979-05-04 — Page 19

But it was not until the autum of 1978 that we began to be really

alamed with the situation facing us. The gross inflow of immigrants, legal and illegal (but excluding refugees) from China and elsewhere accelerated from an average of less than 5,000 per month in the first six months of 1978 to over 13,000 per month in the second six months; and was more than 22,000, per month in the first three months of this year. To put these flows in terms of aggregate figures: in the 27 months ending March 1979 Hong Kong's gross intake of legal and illegal immigrants from China and elsewhere was over 200,000, or more than one and a half times the natural increase in that period.

Against this background, it is not surprising that we now view the current inflow of refugees from Indochina, or more particularly of boat people from Vietnam, with such grave concem. Between 1975 and the latter part of 1978, we took in about 15,000 people from Vietnam: some were illegal immigrants and some were people with a substantial Hong Kong connection who were repatriated on charter flights organised by the Hong Kong Government with the cooperation of the Vietnamese authorities. These 15,000 people are included in the figures of net immigration for those years. Since November 1978, however, there has been a sharp acceleration in the number of refugees arriving either in ocean-going ships, which we believe to have been spécially acquired for the purpose of lifting large number of fare-paying "passengers", or in junks and other small boats sailing direct from Vietnam. So far this year, up to the end of April, two ocean-going ships and 251 junks and small boats had arrived. As a result, we now have 22,821 refugees from Vietnam in Hong Kong, of whom UNHCR have so far processed and provided maintenance and accommodation for only 5,931.

At the end of 1978 there were 5,391 refugees in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement overseas, a number which represented a manageable, although unwelcome, problem. But, by the end of April the number had grown by a net 17,360 to the figure I have just mentioned of 22,821. Up to the end of April the number of arrivals at an average of 5,051 per month exceeded the number of departures for resettlement of a mere 723 per month; and the number of arrivals in the month of April at 6,143 was greater than the average monthly number of arrivals in the first three months of the year when the figures were boosted by the arrival of two ocean-going ships, the Huey Fong and the Sky Luck carrying 3,318 and 2,651 refugees respectively. There is no evidence yet that the number of people leaving Vietnam is being reduced and, certainly, the flow of arrivals in Hong Kong shows no sign of slackening: in the first

/two days