TNAG-1535-FCO40-2099-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation-1986 — Page 12

CONFIDENTIAL

INDO-CHINESE ASYLUM-SEEKERS: INVOLUNTARY REPATRIATION

Comments on paper prepared by Research Department

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Para. 3 (i)

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Para. 3 (ii)

Para. 3 (iii)

Para. 4

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paper public doc

Para. 6

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We think that our offer of local settlement should be mentioned. Hong Kong agreed in 1986 to accept 20 ethnic Chinese for local settlement each month up to a total of 250.

We think it more appropriate to say that "recent" Vietnamese asylum-seekers of Vietnam-

ese ethnic origin have been encouraged to continue their journey onward to Hong Kong.

We think that the number of voluntary re- patriations should be mentioned. There have only been 14 voluntary repatriations in seven years out of a total of 110,000 refugees who have passed through Hong Kong.

We suggest that the following be added to the final sentence. ".....from the whole region, of which nearly 13,000 came from Hong Kong."

We think that the final two lines go further than we have ever gone before. We have never admitted that Hong Kong will accept the hard to resettle cases. Our public_stance is that all refugees to whom we have granted asylum will be resettled. Of course, we anticipate that some hard to resettle refugees will be left in Hong Kong. We hope that any solutions to the refugee problem here will

take this into account and that the numbers therefore will be as small as possible.

We suggest the following redraft in the middle of this paragraph. "The authorities in South China and Macau have been turning away refugee boats for a number of years. But Hong Kong has never turned away any boats which wished to land. The Hong Kong Govern- ment introduced its system of closed camps reluctantly in 1982 as a humane measure to deter asylum-seekers from making for Hong Kong. All refugees on arrival are told of the policy and of Hong Kong's slim resettle- ment prospects and are offered the option of taking on fresh supplies and continuing their journey.

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CONFIDENTIAL

/Paras 8 & 9