result Hong Kong, which already has the largest number
of boat people awaiting resettlement in South East
Asia (and has done SO for three years), would have to
shoulder an even larger share of the burden. When
additonal factors such as the territory's extreme
population density and the continuing burden of legal
and illegal immigration from China are taken into
account, it is understandable that local Hong Kong
measure.
HMG's
people would strongly resent such
conclusion is that present circumstances do not make
it possible to accept the Select Committee's
recommendation that the closed camp policy be ended.
CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH THE FCO WOULD WITHDRAW
ITS SANCTION FROM THE CLOSED CAMP POLICY
5.
It has never been either HMG's or the Hong Kong
Government's intention that the closed
the closed camps should be
a permanent feature of Hong Kong's refugee policy. The Hong Kong Government have always made clear that
the policy is a temporary measure: if the flow of
illegal departures from Vietnam were to be reduced to
a trickle, such deterrent measures would not longer be
necessary. The sooner this happens the better pleased
HMG and Hong Kong will be. However the factors which
determine the rate of departures are beyond the
control of Her Majesty's Government ог the Hong Kong
Government, and depend on developments within Vietnam.
This is the root of the problem. As long as the
social and economic conditions imposed by the Hanoi
Government make life within Vietnam intolerable for
large numbers of people, they will continue to be
attracted by the prospect of life in the west.
Without some policy of deterrence, Hong Kong
continue to be viewed as a convenient gateway to the
if the west will not take those leaving
resettlement goal in itself.
west:
or,
Vietnam,
as
will
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