TNAG-1426-FCO40-1909-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 189

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The refugees from Vietnam should now be called, not refugees but illegal immigrants, since no political persecution is involved, and they are not fleeing from famine such as is found in Ethiopia. If the resettlement of those illegal immigrants had proceeded quickly, the people would have been happy to remain in prison for a year or two until arrangements were made. However, it is unlikely that they will all obtain resettlement as they do not fulfil the criteria as genuine refugees. Moreover, resettlement countries are now taking immigrants directly by air from Vietnam, rather than accepting those who enter Hong Kong illegally.

The Government of Hong Kong claims, wrongly in my estimation, that the closed camps are a deterrent to further influxes. Surely the real deterrent

lies in the difficulty in finding a resettlement country. It seems therefore that the time has come when the deterrent must lie in calling the Vietnamese

by their proper name, illegal immigrants, and sending them back as the Chinese

are repatriated on arrival. The Government must inform the Vietnamese Govern-

ment that all Vietnamese arriving in Hong Kong without valid visas will be

repatriated, either by towing them safely into Vietnamese waters, or by airlift.

Perhaps the British Government can negotiate on this score.

In my estimation, the action to taken is, first to stop accepting illegal Vietnamese Immigrants, then seek resettlement for the thousands that

remain here. Once that is done, and it should be done quickly, the illegal immigrants now living in prison-like conditions should be placed in open camps and allowed to work to support themselves and their families and eventually

integrated into the population if no homes can be found. When I visited them

recently, some of them said that their greatest wish was to be allowed to work

and not depend upon charity. Surely this is a moral issue and we should encourage rather than discourage this attitude.

In short, we need to be humane, and at the same time we must be honest

enough to admit that we have an illegal immigration problem. We would be

wrong to encourage illegal immigrants to obtain priority entry simply by

breaking the law instead of going through immigration procedures which are

now available.

Yours

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