A firmer policy towards the Vietnamese inflow, now well into its fourth year, would be welcomed by Hong Kong people. A tiny minority might object to our treatment of people whom for political or social reasons they still consider as real refugees. The journalistic excesses about conditions in refugee camps in 1979, which led to the Lightbody Report, indicate the sort of misrepresentation and hostility we might have to be prepared to resist.
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International reaction is likely to be mixed. For the greater part, those countries which earlier did so much to support the international plan of action by providing resettlement opportunities, but which have since curtailed their programmes, can but support the measures now proposed. But even within those countries there will be some who feel that those who meet their resettlement criteria should continue to be allowed to be offered resettlement. Although the High Commissioner for Refugees has said that he is opposed to humane deterrence, it seems unlikely, in view of the precedent for closed camps elsewhere in South East Asia, that UNHCR will object to closed camps.
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