TNAG-1786-FCO40-2546-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-closed-camp-policy-1988 — Page 145

OXFAM

RESETTLEMENT

樂施會

Unless and until a repatriation programme can be agreed, the most important single need is for more resettlement places.

Hong Kong is currently sheltering more than 8,000 men, women and children, who are living in limbo, awaiting resettlement. This is expensive for Hong Kong and, more importantly, is an appalling waste of human life. There are hundreds of small children here who have spent their whole lives in a closed refugee camp (i.e. a prison).

Resettlement countries understandably feel that they cannot continue to accept Vietnamese refugees indefinitely.

That is why talks on repatriation should be given high priority.

But until such time as those talks produce a lasting solution, places must be found for the 8,000 people who are already here. Seventeen per cent of the refugees have already been here for more than six years. There is a particularly urgent need to resettle 'long-stayers'.

The most direct way in which Hong Kong can help the refugees is to find resettlement places for them overseas, and the government has made considerable efforts in this area.

We understand that offers from Canada, Australia, Holland and Belgium mean that about 1,000 refugees will be able to leave Hong Kong in 1987. The USA is taking an average of 50-70 per month, and Hong Kong itself is prepared to resettle 200 refugees.

These offers may provide approximately 1,800 resettlement places in 1987, less than half the number of places that have been provided in the first 11 months of 1986.

Much now depends on Britain. During 1986 it has been accepting refugees with family ties in Britain (at a rate of about 40 per month), but has now suspended the programme and has given no commitment as to when it will be resumed or on what scale.

Accurate figures on the number of refugees with family ties in Britain are not available. One estimate is 800, and the number is clearly substantial. Britain could, therefore, make a major contribution to the resettlement programme without changing its criteria.