VB1AOF
BACKGROUND
1.
Since 1975 Hong Kong has accommodated 110,000 Vietnamese
refugees and, despite its own population pressures, has turned none
away: it has also itself accepted for resettlement 14,500 displaced
persons from Indo-China. Despite the efforts of the resettlement
countries, the numbers in the refugee camps in the early 1980 s increased because of the continuing
the continuing flow of newly arriving refugees
from Vietnam. This led the Hong Kong Government to introduce the
closed camp policy" as a temporary measure to reduce the flow of refugees from Vietnam.
2.
The numbers in the open and closed camps have declined over the last year by 1511 and 1159 respectively. No newly arriving refugees have been accommodated
in open camps since closed camps
were introduced in July 1982 and SO the reduction
in
their
population is accounted for wholly by resettlement. The decline in
the population of the closed camps is caused by the excess of
departures (2271) over the net total of arrivals plus births minus
deaths (1112).
3.
In HMG's reply last September to the Home Affairs Committee's
report "Refugees and Asylum with Special Reference to the Vietnamese", the Home Secretary announced that HMG would relax its
family reunion criteria for Vietnamese refugees; of those in Hong Kong expected to benefit under this arrangement 38 had arrived in UK by the end of 1985 and we expect to attain Our projected monthly
arrival rate of 40
rate of 40 from January.
4.
HMG are also prepared to consider (as recommended by the Home Affairs Committee) accepting further limited numbers of refugees, in
addtion to the family reunion cases. A decision on this will be
taken in the light of the
response by other resettlement countries accept more refugees, and of all the
to
ou r
request
that they
circumstances at the time.
5.
Hong Kong Government would also be prepared to consider accepting a limited number of ethnic Chinese refugees from the camps
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.