TNAG-0879-FCO40-1089-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 112

PATCH FROM HONG KONG

BY PATRICIA PENN

FRIDAY 19th JANUARY 1979

FN Tel call 1133

1200-

XN 03 211

ARRIVAL OF HUEY FONG INTO HONG KONG WATERS

Cue: It's reported from Hong Kong that the regugee ship, the Huey Fong,

is entering Hong Kong Harbour. The Huey Fong has been in international waters just outside the British territory for a month - since just before Christmas. 24 hours ago the Hong Kong government told the master of the vessel that the ship could not continue to be provisioned indefinately. He was told that he must decide whether to proceed on the ship's scheduled journey to Taiwan or enter Hong Kong Harbour where he would face legal action. Patricia Penn in Hong Kong:

The Huey Fong is being escorted to a safe sheltered anchorage at the western end of Hong Kong Harbour by royal Hong Kong Police launches. Processing of the refugees in three lighters moored alongside the Huey Fong is expected to begin on Saturday morning. A Hong Kong government spokesman says the ship was admitted to Hong Kong on humanitarian grounds as the weather is deteriorating and a second spell of cold weather is expected. The spokesman disclosed that it's now known that the ship is carrying not two-thousand-seven-hundred refugees as originally declared by the captain, but nearly three-thousand-four-hundred, including over thirteen-hundred children. Conditions on board, the government statement

said, were causing increasing anxiety. The refugees waited twenty- four hours before deciding on the options offered by the Hong Kong government which says that it has information that their last roquest for permission to enter Taiwan was rejected by the Taiwan authorities. The government spokesman said that the Huey Fong refugees will be kept separately from those already in Hong Kong. These are free to move about the territory and number several thousand. It is not clear whether many

of the new arrivals will be classified as illegal immigrants. Accommodation has been made ready in a vacated RAF camp near Hong Kong Airport. According to the Hong Kong government spokesman offers from Britain and other countries to increase their intake of Vietnamese refugees has helped the Hong Kong government in its decision to give the Huey Fong refugees temporary shelter. It emphasises that more help with the problem is needed. The master of the vessel knows that by entering Hong Kong he faces legal action. The naxinun prison sentence for entering Hong Kong waters with excess passengers on board is four years in prison plus heavy financial penalties.

Patricia Penn in Hong Kong

END BUSH/CW NIU 1200