TNAG-0881-FCO40-1091-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 77

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Indo-China:

[ 14 FEBRUARY 1979]

ignored this message and efforts to persuade him to sail for Taiwan failed. This is the background to the "Huey Fong" incident. The Hong Kong Government's decision to allow the passengers of the “ Huey Fong" to disem- bark in the Colony was taken, therefore for humanitarian reasons.

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There is, however, a limit to the numbers Hong Kong can absorb, and there is real and very understandable concern among the people of Hong Kong that other vessels might be encouraged to adopt the same action as the Huey Fong Indeed, their fears have been borne out, and another vessel, the Skyluck", with some 3,000 people aboard, has now entered Hong Kong waters.

I agree with my noble friend Lord Segal when he said that the exodus of refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia is a grim testament to the conditions in those three countries since Communist and totalitarian régimes seized power in Indo- China in 1975. In South Vietnam, in Laos and in Cambodia we have seen not only a drastic fall in the standards of living for many people but also the imposition of systems which violate basic human rights. I do not need to recount the terrible violations which have occurred in Cambodia. I am glad to say that this Government took the lead in bringing those events in Cambodia to the attention of the United Nations by raising them at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Since then the Vietnamese in- vasion of Cambodia has imposed yet more burdens on the long-suffering Cambodian people-one dictatorship imposed upon another. Noble Lords will have seen the international condemnation that the Vietnamese action has caused.

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The situation in Vietnam and Laos continues to give profound cause for concern. Many Vietnamese and Laotians are still detained without trial in so-called re-education" camps. There have been reports of the forced movement of people in Vietnam to new economic zones and of many restrictions on personal, political, religious and other freedoms. The awful risks to life which many thousands of boat refugees who flee from Vietnam are prepared to run show clearly that it is not poverty alone from which they are fleeing. Moreover, it is most disturbing that there are credible reports --I must say this in response to my noble friend Lord Geddes

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Refugee Problem

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-that Vietnamese agencies have been organising and profiting from the de- parture of these refugees. These reports relate that refugees, on payment of gold, board large ships or small boats and, deprived of all their possessions, leave on hazardous voyages to neighbouring countries which have no wish to receive them. It is appalling that any Govern- ment or country could permit, let alone encourage, such a traffic in human lives.

The Government are particularly con- cerned at the reports of an organised scheme whereby large ships are chartered, through the connivance of Vietnamese officials and unscrupulous entrepreneurs, to pick up thousands of refugees directly from Vietnam and then sail unbidden to neighbouring countries. Noble Lords will have read the articles in the Observer of 11th February and the Daily Telegraph of 10th February about this cynical arrangement. I believe that those articles give a good and true impression of what is going on. It is scarcely possible to believe that organised departures on such a scale could be taking place without the full knowledge of the Governments con- cerned.

My right honourable friend the Secre- tary of State for Foreign and Common- wealth Affairs recently summoned the Vietnamese Ambassador to express his concern about such reports and to say that these practices should be stopped. The Government's concern was reiterated by a senior official of my office to the Ambassador again, on 13th February. Indeed, my right honourable friend had previously told the Ambassador of the concern felt by the Government and the British people as a whole-including many who were not unsympathetic to the Vietnamese during the Indo-China war- about the overall human rights situation in Vietnam. 1 regret to say that there is no evidence that the Vietnamese Govern- ment have significantly altered their policies. As I have said, a further vessel, the "Skyluck has now arrived in Hong Kong with another 3,000 refugees. Other vessels may be on the way. The consequences of this are under considera- tion, and they must inevitably affect a wider relationship with Vietnam. Obviously there has to be some order in dealing with this massive flow of refugees from Vietnam. The Vietnamese Govern- ment have said that they will co-operate