TNAG-1425-FCO40-1908-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 178

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From The Minister of State

Richard Luce MP

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14 May 1985

RECEIVED :: IN DISTRY 20 MAY 1985

Dear

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Thank you for your letter of 1 May on behalf of Mrs Susan Farrell of 18 Ridge Crescent, Marple, Stockport about the problem of the 11,200 Vietnamese refugees who are currently in camps in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement.

Before answering Mrs Farrell's specific questions, it may be helpful if I explain the general background to the present situation.

Hong Kong has shouldered an enormous refugee burden in recent years. More than half a million people have left Vietnam by boat since 1975 and of these over 100,000 have arrived in Hong Kong. Although it is one of the most densely populated places in the world, Hong Kong has turned none away: all have been given temporary asylum pending resettlement. Hong Kong has also accepted 14,500 displaced Indo-Chinese for permanent settlement. For the first few years the rate of resettlement from the refugee centres in Hong Kong was satisfactory but by 1982 it had fallen considerably, while large numbers of boat people continued to arrive. As a result the number in Hong Kong began to rise and their prospects of resettlement grew worse.

I presume that the report which Mrs Farrell mentions in the second paragraph of her letter is the one published on 18 April by the Home Affairs Sub-Committee on Race Relations and Immigration (SCORRI), entitled "Refugees and Asylum, with Special Reference to the Vietnamese". You may like to pass to Mrs Farrell the enclosed copies of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's written evidence to the Sub-Committee, and of the oral evidence which I gave on 4 February. Both of these relate mainly to the Hong Kong problem. We and the Home Office are currently considering SCORRI'S recommendations, and will give our response to the House as soon as possible.

The first of the two questions Mrs Farrell raises at the end of her letter is primarily for the Home Office. I would however point out that the United Kingdom has already accepted some 19,000 Indo-Chinese, most of them Vietnamese, for settlement since 1975. We also have a continuing international commitment to resettle family reunion and ship rescue cases.

The answer to Mrs Farrell's second question is that the problem of Vietnamese refugees was not specifically discussed in our

Tom Arnold Esq MP

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