TNAG-0893-FCO40-1103-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 115

BY BAG

CR 11/4821/79

R Flower Esq SEAD

FCO

CONAL

243/1

HKK ZH

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12983

lurking Not 13/2 der Webb Row 16/7

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6th July, 1979

REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM IN HONG KONG: STATISTICS AND TRENDS

You will already have received a telegram giving the major statistics concerning refugees in Hong Kong up to 30 June. I now enclose a set of more detailed tables which you may find useful for the forthcoming conference in Geneva.

2.

We will continue to send regular situation reports on the number of arrivals, departures, the total avaiting resettlement and numbers in UNHCR care. These figures are revised on a daily basis for the current month and for 1979. Please let us know by telegram of dates by which you would like revised figures. Depending on the rate of arrivals we can also update numbers of refugees from South/North Vietnam and of ethnic Chinese/Vietnamese origin to within a few days previously. However, unless you telegraph otherwise, ve shall assume that you would not need anything later than the June figures. The Hong Kong members of the UK delegation will have more recent statistics with them and we will of course report any significant new trends by telegram.

3.

Table IV on resettlement destinations gives the best figures we have for annual departures from Hong Kong. However you should note that refugees from the British freighter 'Clara Maersk', which arrived in May 1975, ware resettled over the period 1975-78. A small number of refugees in 1975 and 1978 vere resettled directly from ships which rescued them and are not recorded in our arrival or departure figures. This lovers the country tatals, notably for Norway (71 on the Johannesburg starê in April 1978) and the UK (17 on the 'Sibonga' in May 1978). The details of current resettlement programmes do not take into account some of the most recently announced offers (e.g. Netherlands, Dermark): however there have been no new specific allocations to Hong Kong.

Trends

4.

Over the past two months there has been a marked increase in the proportion of ethnic Vietnamese coming on small boats, both from

CONFIDENTIAL

/north......