TNAG-0938-FCO40-1157-Visit-of-John-Nott--Secretary-of-State-for-Trade--to-Hong-Ko-1980 — Page 226

Brief No 2

CONFIDENTIAL

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slow pace at which the refugees are being moved on to countries

of permanent settlement. Britain has agreed to take 10,000 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong, who are being transferred at

a rate of about 500 a month. Attempts to speed up this rate

have been frustrated by the diffiuclty of finding sufficient

numbers willing to come to Britain.

7. A much more serious problem for Hong Kong at the moment

is the flood of immigrants from China. Nearly 300,000 have

arrived over the past two years, about half of them legally.

Illegal immigrants who are arrested at the border are repatriated, but large numbers evade arrest, despite reinforcement of the garrison agreed by Ministers last summer to help intensify border

controlls. Repeated requests have been made to the Chinese Government. The Chinese Premier, Hua Guofeng, gave Mrs Thatcher a categorical assurance, when he was in London in November, that

The appropriate steps to deal with the problem would be taken. Chinese indicated that they planned to introduce new measures

in January. The effect of. these is not yet clear. In the meantime,

Over

one

the arrival of several hundred new immigrants every day is placing

an increasingly heavy burden on Hong Kong's social services.

CONFIDENTEIAL