TNAG-1733-FCO40-2446-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 243

0046n

Statement

-Statement by the Hon the Chief Secretary

Sin David Ford, KRE. IVA, JP

in the Legislative Council on

slative Council on 15 June 1988-

le

の

CHIEF SECRETARY :

Sir,

For over 13 years, Vietnamese boat people have been coming to Hong Kong. They have come not to seek a new life in Hong Kong but with the hope of being resettled elsewhere. During that

During that time, we have given temporary asylum to no less than 123,000 boat people and Hong Kong itself has resettled some 15,000 Indo-Chinese refugees.

In the period after the International Conference sc boat people

in Geneva on the

in 1979, people was held kept pace resettlement kept

with arrivals, But although

years, arrivals have risen in recent

resettlement has continued to fall, In 1987, the number of boat people coming to Hong Kong rose by 65 per cent and those leaving to be resettled dropped by 42 per cent. This year, the situation is even worse.

The massive influx of boat people from Vietnam over the last few months has caused the Government and the community of Hong Kong grave concern. Coming as it does after two years of a steady increase in the number of people arriving and a drastic reduction in the number of resettlement places on offer, it has created an intolerable burden on this already overcrowded territory.