8507 D.073939 200M 11/74 Cr.P.C. Gp.839/3
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Appendix C
DRAFT UK STATEMENT FOR 34TH SESSION OF
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE UNHCR
ITEM 9: ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES
HONG KONG
1. I wish to expand on the references to Hong Kong
already made in the UK statement in the general
debate under Item 4.
2.
Our situation is extremely difficult, and
different in nature perhaps from all other places of
asylum: a small territory and a very overcrowded one.
We have almost as many people as Switzerland on a
territory equal to that of one of the smallest
cantons.
•
For this reason Hong Kong has reduced its
own population growth to close to zero (at 1.2% in
1981) and expansion through immigration is now under
strict control. Despite this, 14,000 refugees and
displaced persons have in the past for local
settlement and integration been accepted since 1975.
Hong Kong has never refused asylum for any asylum
seeker. But this. has always been on the understanding
that the grant of asylum must be temporary. Hong Kong
has the present record recognised by the UNHCR of
never having turned away a single VN asylum seeker.
But Hong Kong cannot absorb any more locally.
3.
Fortunately, the number of arrivals this year
in small boats from Vietnam is markedly down on last
year, at about half the previous rate. But most
disappointingly the departure rates for permanent
resettlement elsewhere are reduced still more
drastically, by two thirds. As a result there are
now 800 more Vietnamese in Hong Kong than there were
a year ago. As the UNHCR said in the report on
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Private notes are available after approval.