TNAG-1754-FCO40-2474-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-debates-1988 — Page 59

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24. The Orderly Departure Programme

The Orderly Departure Programme is an administrative arrangement to enable people who meet the UK's standard family reunion criteria under our immigration rules, and who are therefore

entitled to enter the UK, to leave Vietnam. The programme was put

in place in 1979 to facilitate a legitimate channel for departures

from Vietnam for those eligible, and thereby to reduce the pressure

for illegal departures. The rate of departure under the programme is controlled by the Vietnamese authorities and any of those

eligible have already waited years to be permitted to leave.

is no question of the programme being at the expense of the

resettlement of refugees from Hong Kong.

There

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