TNAG-0897-FCO40-1107-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 132

GF 323

SCR 1/46 SF *A* V

LIC HONG KONG

Copy Me. 4 of 24 Fage lo. 1

gies

AN ABS ESSIEN OF THE VIEWANESE REFUGEE SITUATION

AUGUST 1979

Vietnam has kept to the moratorium on boat departures announced at the Conference on Indo-Chinese refugees on 21 July. People are still leaving Southern Vietnam but not with official connivance. Vietnamese officials have hinted that for the moratorium to be permanent, the Testern nations must accept up to 10,000 ethnic Chinese and middle class ethnic Vietnamese per month wishing to go overseas to earn a living' in addition to the family reunion cases under the United Nations Seven Point Programme.

2.

In the period from the conclusion of the Conference in July to the end of August, 4,112 Vietnamese refugees reached Hong Kong on 46 boats and two merchant ships. Of these, the majority (3,159) were ethnic Chinese originally from Northern Vietnam who came via China on eighteen boats. The remainder (953) were ethnic Vietnamese, plus a few Chinese married to Vietnamese, who came in 28 boats mostly from Central Vietnam or were rescued by two merchant ships off Southern Vietnam. The refugees were in five categories :-

(a) ethnic Vietnamese from Southern Vietnam who escaped

clandestinely on motorised boats and sailed direct to Hong Kong (20%);

(b) ethnic Vietnamese from Southern Vietnam who left

clandestinely on motorised boats and deliberately waited in international shipping lanes to be 'rescued' (37);

(c) ethnic Chinese who left Northern Vietnam before the

21 July moratorium and stopped along the Chinese coast, particularly at Bei Hai, before making their way to Hong Kong (approximately 187);

() ethnic Chinese who had crossed into China by land or

boat since mid-1978 and had been resettled on Overseas

/or State farms.

CONFIDENTIAL G