TNAG-1530-FCO40-2094-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-general-1986 — Page 71

camps should become a permanent feature of Hong Kong refugee policy; if illegal departures from Vietnam were reduced to a

trickle then such measures would no longer be necessary.

Recognising the problems of enforced confinement, the Hong Kong

Government ensures that all refugees have access to educational

and training facilities, placing emphasis on subjects most likely

to be of use in resettlement countries. Priority is given to

children's education but adult education and vocational training are also provided in cooperation with the UNHCR and voluntary

agencies.

. Because of a declining rate of resettlement from Hong Kong,

refugees are having to remain in camps for increasingly long periods and some 60 per cent have been in transit accommodation

for over three years. Some 2,500 leave each year for traditional

resettlement countries such as the United States, Australia and

Canada. But these departures do not solve Hong Kong's problem.

What is needed is a continuing willingness in host countries to respond sympathetically to initiatives such as that launched by

Britain as a result of the SCORRI Report. Hong Kong's own.

response of 250 permanent resettlements is generous in proportion

to its size and resources.

The search for durable solutions

. The UNHCR had identified three durable solutions to the

refugee problem:

2

and which imposes a penalty of years' imprisonment

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for illegal dep wh.

Thes

Voluntary repatriation. This is the preferred solution but, in present circumstances, the least practicable. Very few Vietnamese boat people have volunteered to return to their homeland, fearing reprisals from a government which regards unauthorised emigration as a punishable offence. Vietnam has been reticent in accepting the principle of voluntary repatriation and, where volunteers have come forward, only a handful of

cases have been accepted. There has, however, been small-scale voluntary repatriation from Thailand and

some 9,000 Cambodians and 3,000 Laotians have returned

/to