布政司署
香港下亞畢道
CONFIDENTIAL
COVERNMENT
(637
LOWED ALDERT RJAD
* OUR REF.. CR 2/4821/75
XRM YOUR REF.:
MK O Simpson-Orlebar Esq United Nations Department FCO
1 May, 1979
HKK 243/1
INDEX
- 9 MAY 1979
no Mos t's
MACAU'S ATTITUDE TO REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM
We have been concerned for some months about the increasing unwillingness of Macau to give firet asylum to refugees coming in small and overcrowded junks. Recently most of these originate from ports in North Vietnam. Many of them are likely to be boats which have stopped for longer or shorter periods in China. As you will know from separate correspondence, these refugees when they arrive here have been a matter of increasing concern to us because of the reluctance of the UNHCR to take responsibility for them. Since November last year the monthly pattern of refugees refused landing in Macau and arriving in Hong Kong has shown an alarming increase :
Month
November 1978
Junks
Refugees
5
133
December 1978
21
640
January 1979
11
415
February 1979
25
1,108
March 1979
18
965
1 - 27 April 1979
41
2,383
TOTALS
121
5,644
2.
and
The Director of Immigration, Ron Bridge, I went to Macau on 20 April to check on the situation there and sec what we could do to persuade the Macau authorities to look after refugees who reached their shores (as they should do under the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees of which Portugal is a signatory). The Under-Secretary for Social Affairs, Dr Harques, told us that Macau now had about 2,600 refugees from Vietnam, many being recent arrivals, and that Macau's capacity was stretched to the limit. There was virtually no
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