TNAG-1230-FCO40-1543-Visit-by-Richard-Luce--Minister-of-State-for-Foreign-and-Com-1983 — Page 50

THIS IS A COPY THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR

CONFIDENTIAL

YEARS UNDER FOI EXEMPTION No. 27, 40

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4.

Closed camps have attracted little Parliamentary or press criticism in UK. In Hong Kong generally supported by public; many resent acceptance of boat people from Vietnam when illegal immigrants from China (with whom people of Hong Kong have closer ethnic and social ties) are sent back when apprehended. UNHCR do not approve in principle of closed camps but are satisfied with how they are run; they contribute substantially towards their cost (HK$12.8m (£1.1m) out of estimated $106.5m (£9.3m) in 1983).

Resettlement

5. 1979 Geneva Conference on Refugees and Misplaced Persons in South East Asia (July 1979) led to major international resettlement effort; Hong Kong's refugee population fell from peak of 68,000 in September 1979 to just under 10,000 in April 1982. Hong Kong itself

Over past resettled over 14,000 refugees but cannot absorb more. year main resettlement countries, particularly US, have reduced intake, partly because they consider majority of boat people now leaving Vietnam to be 'economic migrants' rather than genuine refugees fleeing political persecution. (They tend now to come from northern and central rather than southern Vietnam and are less likely to be ethnic Chinese or from professional or business classes than were those who joined first exodus.)

UK Policy

6. In 1979 UK agreed to take 11,500 of Hong Kong's boat people. Quota filled by last summer; total of Vietnamese resettled in UK, including ship rescue and family reunion cases, is now 17,000. resettlement in UK not successful. Boat people have few historical

But

CONFIDENTIAL