TNAG-1729-FCO40-2442-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 142

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY :

Budget Speech by stor

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in the course of this debate, seven Members have spoken forcefully on the subject of Vietnamese refugees.

Their remarks reflect the frustration of the community

generally on this issue, and I can assure Members that the

- Administration understands this feeling.

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The major focus of this frustration must, however, be

the economic and social circumstances which perpetuate the

flow of people from Vietnam in small boats. In this

connection, the United Kingdom, the major resettlement

countries and our neighbours in the region have continued to

urge Vietnam to take the necessary steps, to stop this unhappy

traffic, but with little success. Hong Kong, for its part,

has conducted working level discussions with other countries

of first asylum in the region, with the aim of finding out how

similar problems are handled in different places and assessing

the likelihood of a common approach on these matters.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong once again faces the prospect of

ile,

increasing numbers of boat people arriving on our shores.

*600

Over 2400 have arrived this year, 1381 in April alone. And

resettlement countries, which have collectively done so much

to ease our burden over the last decade, and to whom we are

the