TNAG-0936-FCO40-1155-Visit-of-Norman-Fowler--Minister-of-Transport--to-Hong-Kong--1980 — Page 132

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

IMMIGRATION FROM CHINA

IN CONFIDENCE

5. Hong Kong's capacity to accept immigrants, even temporarily,

is severely limited by the strain imposed on its essential services

by an already overcrowded population

densely populated places in the world.

constant problem.

-

Hong Kong is one of the most

Immigration thus constitutes a

The numbers even of legal immigrants are well above what Hong Kong

can absorb comfortably, and illegal immigration from China remains at

a high level despite efforts by both the Chinese and the Hong Kong authorities

to control it.

REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM

7. Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, Hong Kong has had to contend

with a rising tide of refugees. Some 14,000 former residents of

Indo-China, many with family connections in Hong Kong, have been

allowed to settle in the Colony. In addition to those who are

admitted for permanent resettlement, the Hong Kong Government have

also traditionally allowed refugees from Vietnam who reach Hong Kong in small

boats or who are picked up at sea by vessels approaching Hong Kong to

land temporarily while the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

takes responsibility for arranging their eventual resettlement in other

countries. (Some have already been accepted into Britain).

In February 1980 there were still nearly 50,000 Vietnamese refugees

temporarily in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement.

Hong Kong is desperately short.

Accommodation for them in

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