TNAG-0896-FCO40-1106-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 80

HONG KONG: THE 'HUEY FONG' TRIAL

June 1979

The arrival in Hong Kong in January 1979 of more than 3,000 Vietnamese

refugees aboard the freighter Huey Fong is the subject of a trial, involving

11 accused, which opened in Hong Kong on 7 June and is expected to last for

several weeks. Under new legislation, the Hong Kong Government is attempting

to prevent large ships from entering harbour with refugees aboard if the

Crown Colony is not the first port of call, or if the vessels concerned are

believed to be involved in the organised traffic of refugees. Penalties for

carrying excessive numbers of passengers have been raised, and ships'

captains now have to prove claims that their passengers are shipwreck victims.

The Huey Fong's Chinese captain, 52-year-old Hsu Wen-hsin, has pleaded

guilty to a charge of defrauding the Hong Kong Government with the intention

of gaining entry for the refugees, but denies a second charge of carrying an

excessive number of passengers on his ship. Several crew members and four

Vietnamese residents of Hong Kong have pleaded not guilty to similar charges

of fraud.

Prosecution evidence is that after sailing from the South Vietnamese

coast on 18 December 1978, Hsu radioed the Hong Kong Marine Department claiming

that he had rescued a large number of refugees at sea. Although repeatedly

told to make for his first scheduled port of call in Taiwan, Hsu brought the

Huey Fong to Hong Kong on 19 January 1979. Aboard were 3,318 people, nearly

half of them children. The prosecution alleges that these refugees, mainly

ethnic Chinese, were put aboard the Huey Fong in South Vietnam with the know-

ledge and active participation of the Vietnamese Government, acting in

collaboration with agents in South East Asia.

Much of the initial evidence has focussed on the alleged role of the

Vietnamese authorities in the refugee traffic. Opening the prosecution on

7 June, Crown Counsel Peter Duncan said that after registering with Vietnamese

officials before departure, the Huey Fong's passengers had been asked to pay

12 taels of gold (one tael was then worth about £100 sterling) for each adult

and one tael for each child under 16. Two taels per adult and one tael per

child went on hiring the ship; the remainder was kept by the authorities.