TNAG-1603-FCO40-2210-Future-of-Hong-Kong-annual-reports-to-Parliament-on-Hong-Kon-1987 — Page 232

XI.

76.

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES

During 1986 major

resettlement of Vietnamese

efforts were made to speed up the

refugees in camps in Hong Kong.

Following the decision by Her Majesty's Government in September 1985

to accept some 500 refugees from Hong Kong, for family reunion in the

United Kingdom under relaxed criteria, a diplomatic campaign was

mounted by Her Majesty's Government, supported by the Hong Kong

Government, to persuade other countries to offer more resettlement

places to Hong Kong. Many countries responded possitively,

including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France,

Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. For

its part the Hong Kong Government decided to accept 250 more refugees of Chinese origin for local settlement.

77.

In response to a request made by the United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees, the Hong Kong Government also agreed, in

February 1986, to establish a transit centre in Hong Kong, to help

facilitate the resettlement of refugees rescued at sea under the

International Rescue at Sea Resettlement Offers scheme.

78.

However, eleven years

eleven years after the end of the war in Vietnam

there is still no durable solution in sight to the problem of the

continuing exodus of refugees. During 1986 the number of Vietnamese

refugees arriving in Hong Kong doubled compared with 1985.

This was

the first time that the rate of arrivals in the

the territory had

increased since the implementation of the quote closed centre

unquote policy in July 1982. Much of the benefit from an improved

resettlement in 1986 was thus cancelled out by the Large

in the number of new arrivals in Hong Kong. Further,

although some 3,816 refugees were resettled from Hong Kong in 1986 this level is unlikely to be maintained in 1987. The efforts of Her

Majesty's Government and the Hong Kong Government resettlement thus

brought a fall of 1,400 in the Vietnamese refugee population to the

end of the year. But 8,039 remained to be resettled.

rate

of

increase