TNAG-1794-FCO40-2554-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation--including-Opera-1988 — Page 89

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RECEIVE! REGISTRY

12 JUL 1988

Date

INL

FICER

pja

12 July 1988

Dear Mr Courbe,

Thank you for your letter of 24 May addressed to Sir Geoffrey Howe on the subject of Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong. I have been asked to reply. I apologise for the delay in replying.

Since the middle of last year, the situation in Hong Kong has deteriorated rapidly. There are now over 16,000 Vietnamese boat people in camps in Hong Kong, compared with about 8,000 a year ago. Most of those arriving are ethnic Vietnamese; about 70% come from North Vietnam. Most are farmers or fishermen. They cannot be described as political refugees as defined by UNHCR, and their prospects for resettlement in the West are virtually non-existent. It had thus been clear for some time before Sir Geoffrey Howe's recent visit to Hong Kong that the old policy of according refugee status to all arrivals and accommodating them pending resettlement was no longer tenable.

During the Foreign Secretary's visit, the problem of Vietnamese boat people was a major item on his agenda. He saw the scale of the problem at first hand, and visited the Chi Ma Wan

From closed centre and also the Green Island Reception Centre. these visits as well as from intensive discussions with the Hong Kong officials concerned, he concluded that the burden on Hong Kong was becoming intolerable and that new measures were both desirable and inevitable.

The Hong Kong Government introduced a new policy on 16 June, involving a system of screening on arrival, based on internationally recognised criteria, to distinguish genuine refugees from those who have left Vietnam simply in search of a better life. Those few who can show that they are genuine refugees will be acccommodated in Hong Kong to await resettlement. The rest will be detained as illegal immigrants pending their return to Vietnam as soon as acceptable conditions for this are established.