XN000022-1988-10-12 — Page 48

!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1988

36

'FAIR AND FIRM' TREATMENT FOR VBP'S

THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE BOTH 'FAIR AND

VIETNAM,

FIRM' IN DEALING WITH SIR DAVID GOVERNOR,

THE

FROM PEOPLE THE INFLUX OF BOAT WILSON, TOLD THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL TODAY (WEDNESDAY).

"WE MUST BE CONSCIOUS BOTH OF HUMANITARIAN PRINCIPLES NEEDS OF OUR OWN COMMUNITY, SIR DAVID SAID.

11

AND THE

WITH THE PROBLEM OF FOR 13 YEARS, HONG KONG HAD HAD TO COPE

11 HE SAID. VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE. "WE HAVE A RECORD TO BE PROUD OF,'

THE

AS THOSE

THE CENTRAL ELEMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT'S POLICY MUST REMAIN ΤΟ SOLUTIONS

REPATRIATE THOSE SCREENED SEARCH FOR DURABLE ECONOMIC MIGRANTS, AND TO FIND RESETTLEMENT PLACES OVERSEAS FOR FOUND TO BE GENUINE REFUGEES, THE GOVERNOR SAID.

WITH SINCE 1975, 133,000 BOAT PEOPLE HAD ARRIVED IN HONG KONG,

TURNED AWAY, HE NONE OF THEM HAD BEEN ALMOST 69,000 IN 1979 ALONE. SAID.

OUR

HAS

IT FOUND TURNED OUT ΤΟ

COMMUNITY "BUT, AS THE YEARS HAVE PASSED, INCREASINGLY HARD TO ACCEPT THAT THIS PHENOMENON HAS BE NOT A SHORT TERM EMERGENCY BUT A CONTINUING OUTFLOW."

POINTED

OUT THAT AT

THE UNHCR-ORGANISED WAS AN UNDERSTANDING

REFUGEES. THAT ALL BOAT PEOPLE LEAVING VIETNAM WOULD BE CLASSIFIED AS

WOULD GIVE

SHELTER: ARRIVED THE PLACES WHERE THEY

THE GOVERNOR CONFERENCE ON REFUGEES IN GENEVA IN 1979 THERE

THEM

TEMPORARY

COUNTRIES OF RESETTLEMENT WOULD PROVIDE A LONG TERM HOME.

HAVE BEEN

PREPARED

"WE IN HONG KONG PROVIDING TEMPORARY SHELTER ON THE BASIS PREPARED TO OFFER PERMANENT RESETTLEMENT,

"IN RECENT YEARS IT HAS

[

ΤΟ

BY PLAY OUR PART THAT OTHER COUNTRIES WERE

HE SAID.

THAT APPARENT BECOME

THIS

COMPLEMENTARY ARRANGEMENT HAS BROKEN DOWN.

KONG

FROM HONG INCREASED BY 65 PER

LAST YEAR THE NUMBER OF BOAT PEOPLE RESETTLED FELL BY 42 PER CENT WHILE THE NUMBERS ARRIVING CENT.

ALSO ARRIVING THE TYPE OF PEOPLE WHO WERE WERE NOW ALMOST ALL ETHNIC VIETNAMESE, MOST FORMERLY NORTH VIETNAM.

CHANGED AND THEY OF THEM FROM WHAT WAS

"MANY

OF

THE RESETTLEMENT

COUNTRIES

QUESTIONED WHETHER THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT ECONOMIC MIGRANTS RATHER REFUGEES AS DEFINED UNDER ACCEPTED INTERNATIONAL CRITERIA: BEEN UNWILLING TO PROVIDE RESETTLEMENT PLACES FOR THEM.

HAVE

THAN

THEY

HAVE

SIR DAVID

SAID:

/MOST VIETNAMESE

+