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VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
Refugee Population at 1.1.81 : 24,065.
Hong Kong justifiably holds a proud record of
aid to Vietnamese Refugees, even though it has had to deal with the problems of absorbing tens of thousands of immigrants from China entering, both legally and illegally. Hong Kong is the only territory which has offered safe asylum to all refugees reaching its shore and not turned
anyone away.
2.
The first boat refugees received by Hong Kong were some 3,740 arriving in mid 1975 and these took almost three years to resettle. Meanwhile, refugees continued to trickle in during 1976 (191) and 1977 (1,001) but then turned into a flood in 1978 (6,609) until in 1979 the number of refugees in Hong Kong reached a record high of well over 70,000. At present 22,000 boat refugees remain in Hong Kong, more than in any other country of first asylum.
3.
In 1979 the Hong Kong Government incurred HK$72M (US$14 million) in direct expenditure on establishing and running refugee camps, feeding and transporting refugees.
A further HK$8.4 million was spent in the first 11 months of
These figures do not include the cost of staff and
resources diverted from other purposes, the use of land and
other hidden costs.
4.
In addition the burden of giving temporary asylum to the massive influx of boat refugees, Hong Kong has already
provided permanent settlement for some 14,000 refugees and
displaced persons from Indo-China since April, 1975.
5.
In July 1979 following an initiative from the British
Prime Minister, the United Nations called a Conference in
Geneva. At that time, the UK Government announced its intention
to take 10,000 refugees from Hong Kong in addition to the
then existing quota of 1,000 earlier agreed.
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