TNAG-0893-FCO40-1103-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 245

BACKGROUND NOTE

CONFIDENTIAL

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INDO-CHINESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG

1. The current Hong Kong Government policy towards refugees is:

(i) to accept for permanent settlement:

(a) those who are spouses, dependent children or dependent

elderly parents of people who were already permanent residents of the territory before 1975;

(b) those who are picked up at sea by Hong Kong registered

vessels

(ii) to provide temporary shelter, pending resettlement elsewhere

by UNHCR, to:

2.

(a) those who arrive in Hong Kong in their own boats;

(b) those who are rescued at sea by vessels for whom Hong Kong is the next scheduled port of call (however, the Hong Kong Government have now decided that they can no longer automatically apply the first port of call

principle, though this has not been publicly announced).

Since 1975, over 82,000 former residents of Indo-China have been given refuge in Hong Kong. This total comprises:

(i) about 11,000 Vietnamese, 2,100 Cambodians and 1,200 Laotians

who have been accepted for permanent settlement;

(ii) some 69,000 others, almost all of them from Vietnam, who have

been given temporary shelter pending resettlement elsewhere.

3. Of those in the second category, about 9,600 have been resettled in other countries, 5,003 of them in 1979. The main countries of final settlement of those who have left Hong Kong this year were:

CONFIDENTIAL

/United States