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SECKET 高度機密
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LIC HONG KONG
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VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
JULY 1979
The international conference on Indo-Chinese refugees was held in Geneva on 20 and 21 July, 1979, with sixty-five countries, including the Soviet Union, China and Vietnam attending. Various nations made pledges to resettle refugees from countries of first refuge in South-east Asia and Vietnam agreed to impose a moratorium on departures for a 'reasonable period of time' to enable the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to introduce a plan for orderly and legal emigration.
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Refugees recently arrived in Hong Kong have stated that the Vietnamese Government has stopped registering ethnic Chinese for departure by boat since mid-June, but persons who had registered before this date were still being allowed to leave; ethnic Vietnamese are now no longer able to leave using false papers. However, both ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese still try to leave clandestinely or by bribing officials. Some may also deliberately shipwreck them selves on main shipping routes upon sighting a passing vessel. Evidence of the tap being turned off is the number of refugees reaching Hong Kong. This reached a peak during May and June, but diminished markedly in the week before the international conference. Between 1 and 15 July, 6,855 refugees arrived directly from Vietnam, with only 509 in the period 16 to 31 July. During the month an additional 1,433 are suspected to have arrived after having been settled in China for at least several months, thus distorting the monthly arrival total of 8, 797. Reports from Malaysia and Indonesia indicate that the number of boats reaching these countries also dropped in late July.
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It is reported that in southern Vietnam many of the rem aining ethnic Chinese, of whom there were about a million, are still making preparations to leave, despite the ban on departure, because of continuing discrimination in employment, freedom of movement and schooling. An unknown number of ethnic Vietnamese also want to leave. Many families have relatives in Hong Kong or overseas who are still remitting money to Vietnam, or paying money agents in Hong Kong. Most of the ethnic Chinese in northern Vietnam have however already departed for either China or Hong Kong.
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