TNAG-1419-FCO40-1902-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 150

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE POLICY

3.

In his oral evidence to the sub-committee, Mr Luce provided statistics of refugee arrivals

for Hong Kong and for the South East Asia region as a whole which demonstrate clearly that the Hong Kong arrival rate has decreased considerably more sharply than that of the region since the introduction of the closed camp policy. (Q223) In other respects Hong Kong is an attractive place for asylum seekers: it is generally recognised that the material conditions in Hong Kong's

camps, including the closed camps, are better than

those of most other countries of the region. Indeed

it was precisely because open camp conditions

attractive that Hong Kong appears to have acted as a magnet for boat people until the closed camp policy

we re

was introduced. HMG consider that the conclusion i s

inescapable that the decrease in the arrival rate in

Hong Kong is due to the closed camp policy.

CONSEQUENCES OF ABOLISHING THE CLOSED CAMP POLICY

4.

closed

21).

HMG

In HMG's view the reasons for continuing with the

camp policy are the s ame today as when they

were introduced in 1982.

note that the report

recognises that the latter are "understandable" (para

A substantial flow of refugees continues to

leave Vietnam. Although the Hong Kong arrival rate has decreased more sharply than that of the region as

a whole since 1982, the resettlement rate has only

just kept pace with the combined arrival rate and

birth rate in the camps.

In HMG's view the likely

consequence of abolishing the closed camp s

and

transferring the residents to open camps would be that Hong Kong would become again the magnet for people

from Vietnam that it was between 1979 and 1981.

would be a sharp rise in the number of arrivals, with

corresponding increase in resettlement.

no

There

Page 150Page 151