TNAG-1419-FCO40-1902-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 73

E.R.

A

The

Vietnamese at present in camps in countries of temporary asylum. About 500 Vietnamese refugees, most of them in Hong Kong, will be eligible to come here as a result of this decision. Government is also prepared to consider accepting, in addition to the family reunion cases, further limited numbers of Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong. The decision on this will be taken in the light of the willingness shown by other re- settlement countries to respond to Hong Kong's needs and of all the circumstances at the time. The Hong Kong Government will also be prepared to consider accepting for resettlement in Hong Kong a limited number of ethnic Chinese if the resettlement forms part of a package aimed at reducing drastically the size of Hong Kong's Vietnamese refugee population and resettling all those whose stay in camps has been prolonged. The FCO will. actively press other resettlement countries to take additional refugees from Hong Kong in the light of these decisions.

5. The Government has not, however, been able to accept in

present circumstances the Select Committee's recommendation

that the closed camp policy be ended. The Government believes

discoway's that this policy is the most humane means of deterring further

from Viethan

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large-scale arrivals of refugees and has been effective in achieving this aim. In its view if the closed camps were abolished the likely consequence would be that Hong Kong would

the again become a magnet for people from Vietnam that it

ૐ

between 1979-81, and

PART II

6.

causing an unacceptable and in the camp populatio

little

was

unmanageable

rise

In Part II the Select Committee analysed the position of

the Vietnamese in Britain. It concluded that the Vietnamese have continuing difficulties for which special help is required. The Government agrees. Currently it is supporting the three voluntary refugee agencies in a three year Programme, the aim of which is to develop the capacity of the Vietnamese community and of statutory and voluntary services to the point at which the Vietnamese can become self-reliant and integrated. In the

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