TNAG-1533-FCO40-2097-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-closed-camp-policy-1986 — Page 32

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young women, and she will never be allowed out of the camp unless she goes to hospital. She has exchanged one form of highly restricted life in Communist Haiphong for an even more restricted but secure life in a British-run 'prison'.

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If the people of Hong Kong were asked whether they approve, they would almost certainly say 'Yes'.

There is every sign that the people of Hong Kong are very well aware that despite the shadow of the Chinese takeover in 1997, millions of Asians would flock to the colony tomorrow if all travel restrictions were lifted. Nor is there much ethnic empathy in Hong Kong with the new arrivals. In the last couple of years, nearly 98% of the boat people coming from Vietnam have been of Vietnamese origin, and only 2% are of Chinese stock.

Meanwhile, the severe restrictions placed upon the new Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong and in Thailand as well increases the moral pressure upon potential hosts

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to open their doors still wider.

The overwhelming number of resettlement places for the Vietnamese have, of course, been offered by Western nations. Between April 1975 and September 1st 1986, the United States had absorbed 805,000 Vietnamese refugees. Mainland China has taken 265,000 - (some of whom are now trying to cross into Hong Kong). Canada has absorbed 129,000, while Australia and France have each taken a fraction under 112,000. During this period, the United Kingdom has taken 20,000 - almost all from Hong Kong which is less than West Germany's 30,000, but at least ten times the number taken by Japan. Last year the Japanese sent a six-man team to Hong Kong to interview refugees. They selected a grand total of five for resettlement in Japan. In the same period, Luxembourg took 25. It is quite clear that Japan has no intention of ever taking any appreciable number of foreign refugees.

On the other hand, it is not at all clear why Beckenham or Mid-Sussex should be thought of as suitable places of settle-ent for these Vietnamese farmers and fishermen. In a sensible world, we would find a long term haven for these economic refugees within south East Asia.

In the past, all the ASEAN countries, however, have made it plain that they would not welcome penniless Vietnamese refugees. Singapore has no room. Thailand and Malaysia both have a long history of hostility to Vietnamese of every sort and persuasion. Both the Philippines and Indonesia, however, do have some empty areas within their frontiers which could provide sanctuary for the 20,000 refugees in Hong Kong, Thailand, and elsewhere, who are sitting in open and closed camps.