TNAG-0794-FCO40-998-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1978 — Page 108

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Vietnamese Refugees 15 DECEMBER 1978 [Mr. Goodhart.]

up by a British ship. There is perhaps an overall commitment to help the 4,000 refugees now finding shelter in Hong Kong.

Given the nature of the problem, it is difficult to be precise. But it looks as though the Government, in practice, are committed to taking between 500 and 1,000 refugees into this country each year so long as the flood of people from Viet- nam continues. If that is right, the sooner that voluntary agencies such as the British Council for Aid to Refugees, the Save the Children Fund or the Ockendon Venture get some Government guidance the better. Their help is essential, but they have very little idea of what plans to make for the future.

The party heading for Peterborough today is going largely, I understand, on the initiative of one man,

Councillor Swift. I understand that the party which will be heading for Swindon in the New Year will be going there because of the initiative of an old friend of mine, the Rev. Andrew Hake. This sort of personal commitment is wholly admirable when one is dealing with a few clusters of families. More formal arrangements will be needed if the Government are thinking in terms of taking in 500 to 1,000 refugees a year.

I believe that the Western world has a substantial moral obligation to the thousands of refugees who will be spend- ing Christmas in austere camps or in cramped, dangerous boats. We should not turn wearily away at this time of the year while little children are left to drown.

12.45 p.m.

Mr. Ronald Bell (Beaconsfield): My hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham (Mr. Goodhart) has done a service to the House in raising the difficult problem of the refugees from Indo-China. I do not imagine that there is any easy or entirely satisfactory solution.

I wish only to refer to some aspects which have a particular British signifi- cance. My hon. Friend will understand that I strongly resist any suggestion that a substantial number of refugees from another source should come to this country. I recognise very well the human-

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Vietnamese Refugees 1222 itarian considerations which arise, but we have to start from where we are.

from overseas into this country over the The House is familiar with the inflows

past 20 to 25 years resulting in an immi- grant population, or an immigrant-des- cended population, of a magnitude that is debatable but that is between 3 mil. lion and 4 million people. That is a for- midable ingestion in a period of less than one generation. It has transformed some parts of our country, and it has all hap- pened in a most haphazard and unplanned way.

It would never have happened if it had been planned. The people of this country would never have consented to the crea- tion, in less than one generation, of an immigrant population numbering between 3 million and 4 million. I am talking simply of an immigrant population from the tropical areas of the world. That figure does not include the inflow of people from the temperate areas of the world, which is also massive.

In the central areas of London-West- minster, Kensington, Chelsea, Earl's Court, Haringey, and places like that -more than half the babies are born to mothers who were not themselves born in any part of the United Kingdom. This shows the context in which we have to consider the points that my hon. Friend has so ably put before the House.

We are in danger not merely of so diversifying our population as to des- troy its sense of identity but also of turn- ing ourselves into a human ant-heap. If one takes a typical area, say, Earl's Court, one find that the density of popu- lation is about 60,000 to the square mile. That means that 100 people per acre live there. It is, I suppose, about seven times fantastic position has developed in Lon- the density of Hong Kong. An almost

don since the war. We must have this in mind.

I yield to no one in my sympathy for those who either have escaped from or are living in these Indo-Chinese terri- tories-not just Vietnam-where appal- ling things have been happening. But we should also consider the humanitarian aspects of our own life. We have to be humanitarian to the British people, for whose life and future we in this House have a direct and special-indeed over- riding-responsibility.

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Vietnames

A problem of China It is d Communist-inspire insurrections. Th are considering Chinese. Why sho China? This never But they are Chines to many parts of Vietnam, Laos and place have substa tions, which are mi they are ethnically where else, and mi sense, in that they

They are not by loose as the Indian moved up and dow tions changed. Bu its responsibility fo African Indian tra never sufficiently re but I never criticis refused to accept ar Uganda or Kenya- had not first elected had, India said that That was how the arose. Otherwise, I of the so-called Ui port holders--a ng any of the East A always go to India. was because they ↑ Bombay.

The same should know whether it is, Minister will say- the ethnic home of by definition it characteristics' that are obviously desira What is more, Chin or in concert with mate responsibility f in which these peop selves. It is no goo China or Russia w what it has done. responsibility lies.

I hope that we s rously unrealistic an in the world persec pressure or migration country is the appoin migration flow. Tha pened. I am sure th remember, after the population pressure

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