TNAG-0888-FCO40-1098-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 168

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racialist policy should be quite unacceptable to the

international community.

But as

now well established from reports by refugees

themselves the Vietnamese Government is engaged in organising

the exodus in small and large boats and in systemically

depriving the refugees of their belongings before their

departure. One hears of an accepted tariff of £1500 payable

in gold for an adult for an exit permit, and half price for a chil

Further payments are exacted for permission to board a boat

for the perilous journey across the South China Sea:

we know

of cases of payments to the Vietnamese Government of over a

quarter of a million pounds in gold for a party of 300 people

in a small boat. The large boat parties are often arranged by

unscrupulous Asian businessmen working in connivance with the

Vietnamese Government. Further substantial payments are

also demanded by the boat owner. The gold is bought through

official channels with foreign exchange sent from abroad.

The money acquired by the Vietnamese Government from this cruel

system must be one of its largest sources

of its largest sources of foreign exchange.

We do not know for certain how many of the unfortunate

victims perish in unseaworthy and overloaded boats. But the

survival rate is variously estimated at between 50 and 30 percent.

Only a major international effort can cope with the

problem.

The Government have been in touch with the United

Nations Secretary-General who himself has expressed grave

/concern