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to cur point of view, although he does not want
"political" aspects of a conference.
Hong Kong
to be involved in the
5. The situation in Hong Kong is the Government's first concern.
With the other countries of the region taking an increasingly hard
Line, Hong Kong is likely to be the target for more and more of the
refugees. There could well be over 100,000 there by the end of the
summer. Of the countries involved in the Summit only the United
States and Canada have specific resettlement programmes for Hong Kong.
The Americans are taking about 450 a month, and the Canadians about
500.
There are indications that both may do more. But in general
Hong Kong is getting lower priority for settlement than countries
which turn refugees away.
ASEAN Processing Centre
6.
The processing centre on an Indonesian island is under
consideration with the UNHCR. It will be for a maximum of 10,000
people who have already been accepted for settlement elsewhere.
It
will be too small, therefore, to make much of a contribution to
solving the problem.
Agreement between the UNHCR and Vietnam
7. An agreement has been reached giving the UNHCR a role in arranging
emigration for people who have resettlement offers abroad. At present
levels of outflow, the 20,000-30,000 who may qualify equal barely
two weeks' outflow of boat people.
Vietnamese Government Policy
8. The Vietnamese Government is not only bringing about the exodus
by deliberate policy, but is profiting by pecuniary exactions from
the refugees. Vietnam's ethnic Chinese minority bears the brunt of
official persecution, but Vietnamese members of the former middle
class in the South have also been deprived of their means of
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