THAMES TELEVISION "THIS WEEK"
Questions for the Secretary of State
1(a). Why has the British Government instituted "16 June" policy;
and is it determined to carry it through even though it could
involve boat people being sent back to Vietnam against their will?
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First, since 1975, over 130 thousand boat people have arrived in Hong Kong from Vietnam
In one year alone, from the summer of 1987 the boat people population tripled from 8,000 to 25,000.
As is well known, Hong Kong is small and already overcrowed.
- When I visited the colony in May of this year I saw for myself
that the burden had become intolerable and if things were left
as they were, Hong Kong would sink beneath the weight of ever-
increasing numbers of boat people.
We had to draw the line somewhere. Their prospects for resettlement in Hong Kong or elsewhere were virtually
non-existent. We had to stop them coming for their own sakes.
Previous policy actually encouraged the boat people to come
which condemned the vast majority of them to a hopeless state of limbo in the camps in Hong Kong.
Second, we began to see a new kind of boat person.
Very few of recent arrivals were fleeing political or religious
persecution. Their motives were purely economic.
Whichever way you look at it, the boat people, with few
exceptions, are not genuine refugees under agreed international criteria: they are illegal immigrants.
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