TNAG-1419-FCO40-1902-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 149

<

and

considerably since the initial influx in 1979, the rate at which refugees from Hong Kong were being accepted for resettlement overseas was falling sharply. Hong Kong was therefore faced with the

propect of the camp population rising again to the levels of 1979/80, without any prospect of a corresponding increase in resettlement. The resultant

situation would rapidly have become unmanageable. Since a refusal to allow refugee boats to enter Hong Kong was

is considered unacceptable for humanitarian reasons, the closed camp policy was the

most humane measure of deterrence that was available

to the Hong Kong Government. There was strong public pressure in Hong Kong

Kong to introduce such a policy for

several reasons: similar policies had already been adopted by other places of asylum in the region (in s ome cases since 1979); Hong Kong already experienced

acute problems as a result of the large influx of immigrants from China

in recent years and the public were alarmed at the prospect of Hong Kong giving the shelter indefinitely to increasing numbers of

and

Vietnamese; they objected to the fact that there was

ん an "open door" policy towards the Vietnamese while.

Chinese illegal immigrants, with whom they had close

cultural, and often

and often family, ties were a 8 a matter o Government policy repatriated to China (whereas since late 1979 ethnic Vietnamese, with no cultural or links with Hong Kong, have comprised 98 percent

arrivals in the territory from Vietnam). They did

see why the Vietnamese should be given

treatment, especially since to an increasing their primary motivation for leaving their coun like that of Chinese immigrants, seemed to be econ rather than political.