TNAG-0878-FCO40-1088-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 168

Mr Cortazzi

PS

CONFIDIGHETAL

HKK 243/1

RECEIVED MI ROGOWY NO. 51 12 JAN 1979

$51-4

agread

14710

were

87

my dont

the submission sud

he signed by iN 5-0

M

fus

A

INDO-CHINESE REFUGEES

INDEA

No

RETRY

ction

en

PLE

M

↑

1. The Home Secretary has how replied to the Secretary of State's letter of 6 December about Indo-Chinese refugees.

Subject to certain

detailed points, he has accepted Dr Owen's proposal that 1,500 refugees from camps in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand should be accepted into the United Kingdom over the next 9-12 months. (Mr Rees's letter of 9 January).

B 2.

The Secretary of State's proposal was that the 1,500 should be shared equally between Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. Hong Kong a situation has, however, deteriorated dramatically since early December. The Hong Kong Government now accept that their efforts to persuade the HUEY FONG to sail to its original destination in Taiwan have failed and that they will almost certainly be obliged to allow its 2,700 refugees to land. There must be a serious risk that similar ships will follow, despite the new legal powers which the Hong Kong Government are taking to deter those involved in the refugee traffic. In the meantime, "small boat" refugees are arriving in increasing numbers: no fewer than 2,168 arrived between 1 November and 8 January, over 1,000 of them since 23 December when the HUEY FONG first anchored off Hong Kong. Many of these have come via China, and because they have spent some considerable time there do not qualify for resettlement by the UNHCR. With our support, the Hong Kong Government are trying to persuade the Chinese authorities to take these people back, but the Chinese have not yet reached any decision. It should also be borne in mind that the problem of Vietnamese refugees has arisen at a time when Hong Kong is having to cope with an exceptionally. high level of immigration from China. In 1978, over 71,000 legal immigrants entered Hong Kong from China (compared with 26,000 in 1977) and it is estimated that an additional 33,000 people succeeded in entering illegally. There are now signs that the numbers may be beginning to tail off following the repeated representations made to the Chinese in London and Peking as well as locally. But it is too soon to be sure.

CONFIDENTIAT.

/3: Against