From The Minister of State
The Rt Hon The Lord Goronwy-Roberts
れ
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
12. March 1979
Hkk 360/2
INDEX
No
1 6 MAR 1979
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51
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Mr Williamson
Thank you for your letter of 23 February about the incident on 7 January involving the Yau Ma Tei boat dwellers of Hong Kong.
These people belonged to the large floating population that has existed in Hong Kong for generations. Traditionally, the boat people have made their living as fishermen or in various other marine trades such as cargo handling. Their numbers have declined steadily since the war as people whose families have worked afloat for generations have taken jobs ashore. Between 1960 and 1978, some 80,000 boat dwellers were resettled by the Hong Kong Government in public housing estates. In the same period, the number of boats in sheltered anchorages dropped from about 7,800 to 2,400.
There are still many among the boat people who make their living off the sea. But a large proportion of them are no more than boat squatters people who, unable to obtain suitable accommodation ashore, live on boats permanently moored in the various typhoon shelters around Hong Kong. No one disputes that these people need, and have a right, to be resettled in decent housing on land. The problem is to make sufficient housing avail- able quickly enough.
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The Hong Kong Government's aim is to provide subsidised public housing for all who live in substandard accommodation. This includes not only boat dwellers, but large numbers of people living in unsatisfactory conditions on land. Priority is given to people made homeless as a result of fire or natural disaster, or whose homes become dangerous or have to be knocked down because the areas on which they are built are needed for development. In the case of
the boat people, if their boats are found on inspection to be in a dangerous condition, the inhabitants are immediately moved to temporary housing ashore: since 1977, 922 boat people have been urgently moved ashore for this reason. Otherwise, everybody must take their turn, and because of the large numbers involved (swollen by recent trends in immigration from China and Vietnam) demand greatly exceeds supply. The waiting list is at present 6-7 years.
This situation exists despite a government housing programme that has already provided subsidised public housing for over 2 million people, representing some 46 per cent of the total Hong Kong population. New homes are being added at a rate which will
Mr Stan Newens MP
House of Commons
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