TNAG-0897-FCO40-1107-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 196

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P.A. Jo.g

Background Brief

Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London

August 1979

HONG KONG: CONCLUSION OF THE

HUE

HUEY FONG' TRIAL

6

TRIG

The trial in Hong Kong of a number of people concerned in the arrival there, in January 1979, of more than 3,300 Vietnamese refugees aboard the freighter Huey Fong, ended on 9 August when the defendants were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Under new legislation the Hong Kong Government is attempting to prevent large ships from entering harbour with refugees aboard if Hong Kong is not the first port of call, or if the vessels concerned are believed to be involved in the organised traffic of refugees.

The Huey Fong's Captain, Hsu Wen-hsin, admitted the charge of defrauding the Hong Kong Government with the intention of gaining entry for the refugees and was found guilty of carrying an excessive number of passengers, which he had denied. He was sentenced to 6 years' imprisonment. Sentences imposed on six of the ship's officers, also for fraud, ranged from 15 months' to 41⁄2 years' imprisonment. Three Vietnamese businessmen, resident in Hong Kong, were identified by the Judge as the chief conspirators in court; each received a seven-year prison sentence and a fine of HK$50,000 (about £5,000). The son of one of them received a five- year sentence. The Judge described the voyage of the Huey Fong as an exercise in deceit from start to finish, motivated by a lust for gold.

Prosecution evidence revealed that after leaving the South Vietnamese coast on 18 December 1978, the Captain radioed the Hong Kong Marine Department to say that he had rescued a large number of refugees at sea. However, the refugees (Vietnamese mainly of Chinese ethnic origin) actually boarded the vessel in South Vietnam with the collusion of the Vietnamese Government and agents in South- East Asia.

·

Mr Peter Duncan, opening the prosecution on 7 June, 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 = about £100 sterling) for each adult and one tael for each child under 16. Two taels per adult and one per child went towards hiring the ship; the remainder was kept by the authorities. From this one voyage, the Vietnamese Government had made some £2 million, over and above the confiscation of property and other exactions. The refugees were conveyed to the Huey Fong in small craft between 16 and 18 December, the embarkation being supervised by Vietnamese officials. Coded messages were used during the operation: the refugees were referred to as "frozen ducks" and the rendezvous with the Huey Fong as the "wedding date". This was part of the camouflage to justify the diversion of the ship which purported to be on a voyage from Bangkok to a Taiwan port to Hong Kong. One witness said that a Vietnamese landing craft had taken him and his family to the Huey Fong; another that when the Huey Fong arrived off the Vietnam coast in December it was met by a Vietnamese Government liaison group, including a high-ranking official, aboard a gun boat.

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This paper has been prepared for general briefing purposes. It is not and should not be construed or quoted as an expression of Government policy.