TNAG-1535-FCO40-2099-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation-1986 — Page 32

DSR 11C

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mainly confined to the 280,000 Vietnamese of

Chinese origin who have been accepted for

settlement in China. This process has proved not

without difficulty for both sides and a large

number has sought to subsequently enter Hong Kong.

Elsewhere in the region the difficulties of

absorbing large, highly differentiated populations

of asylum-seekers has been considered impossible on

economic and security grounds. There is some

evidence even in the case of China that Vietnamese

asylum-seekers of Vietnamese ethnic origin have

been encouraged to continue their journey onward to

Hong Kong. Hong Kong has absorbed some 14,500.

Malaysia has, without publicity, accepted some

hundreds of Cambodian Muslims for settlement.

(ii) Voluntary repatriation.

There having been

virtually no change in the conditions which

provoked the refugee outflows, it is not surprising

that there have only been a few thousand cases.

The UNHCR has provided assistance to some

Cambodians and Lao to return from Thailand. The

authorities in Cambodia profess to welcome

returning assylum-seekers (although there are

reports of harsh treatment of political detainees

and would-be illegal escapees); those in Laos have

tolerated

them and have also indicated that international

assistance would be required to help with the

reintegration of those returning.

The Vietnamese,

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