CONFIDENTIAL
populations of 242,000 and
Major engineering works and
147,000
are expected in the same year.
public housing construction to house
140,000 people by 1994 are underway in Junk Bay and the first
residents of the new town will move in by early 1987.
Advance
engineering work started
at Tin Shui Wai in the north-western New
Territories where the population is expected to reach 66,000 people
also by 1994. By 1995 the population in that area, which also
includes Tuen Mun and
Yuen Long, could rise to over 700,000; and to
cater for the expected travel demand in this region, work on a Light
Rail Transit system linking Tuen Mun with Yuen Long will commence
early next year.
VII.
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
50.
was
effective
in
Vietnamese refugees continued to arrive in Hong Kong, although
the "closed centre" policy, which the continuing flow of arrivals
together with the fall
in
the rate of overseas resettlement had
compelled the Hong Kong Government reluctantly to agree to adopt,
reducing the size of the in flux. The rate of
resettlement remained disappointingly low. In September 1985 Her
Majesty's Government jointly with the Hong Kong Government announced
several measures aimed at reducing the size of Hong Kong's re fugee population: Her Majesty's Government would relax its family reunion
criteria to permit some 500 refugees now in Hong Kong camps to
settle in the United Kingdom; Her Majesty's Government would also
consider accepting further limited numbers from Hong Kong depending
of response
other countries and
circumstances the
at the
time; and the Hong Kong Government would
be
prepared to consider
accepting
from the camps, but
only as part of an
reduce drastically the
upon
the
a
limited
number
international
of ethnic Chinese
effort to
size of Hong Kong's refugee population. Her Majesty's Government
would mount
effort to use these decisions to
persuade other countries to offer more resettlement places to
Kong.
major diplomatic a
Hong
that
Meanwhile Her Majesty's Government also announced
present circumstances do not make it possible to abandon the "closed
centre" policy.
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CONFIDEN TIAL
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