CONFIDENTIAL
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THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR
40 YEARS UNDER FOI EXEMPTION No. 2760).....
that of illegal immigrants from China, with whom they have closer
They are critical of the
allocated to Vietnamese refugees at
family, cultural and ethnic ties.
financial and other resources
their expense.
(d)
2
8.
Government
from
The closed camp policy is the only measure that the Hong Kong
have been able to implement to deter Vietname se
travelling to Hong Kong. Although it by no means provides a
complete answer to the problem (refugees continue to arrive), and
has itself created new problems, the Hong Kong Government consider
the advantages of the policy decisively outweigh the
disadvantages and that this policy of deterrence
must continue.
that
Geneva
9. The Hong Kong Government believes that no lasting solution will
be found until the flow of refugees from Vietnam is stopped. Until
some means i s found to do this, the Hong Kong Government must
continue to rely on the understanding reached at the 1979
Conference that refugees should be resettled internationally
countries of first asylum.
from
IV PROBLEMS OVER RESETTLEMENT
After
10. of the 58,543 Vietnamese who arrived in Hong Kong in the first
half of 1979, 84% were ethnic Chinese. They were considered by
resettlement countries to fall under the accepted definition of
"refugees"* through their persecution for reasons of race. 1979 however the proportion of ethnic Chinese arriving in Hong Kong
dropped to 2-3%. Initially most
of the ethnic Vietnamese arriving
from South Vietnam; they were readily accepted by
as refugees, on grounds of political persecution. Between 1980 and 1983 however the proportion of Northerners steadily
in Hong Kong were
Western countries
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