CONFIDENTIAL
3. As a result of this influx, the camps have become severely overcrowded, on average 50% over-capacity. Tension in the camps is high. There has been rioting and two deaths in violent incidents. Cholera was confirmed on the outlying island of Tai A Chau, which has no proper sanitation or other facilities but where up to 5,000 boat people had to be temporarily accommodated in the summer months
in the absence of other suitable accommodation. Tai A Chau has
now been completely evacuated but the conditions in the camps remain the subject of much concern both internationally and in this
country.
4.
There is a growing sense of anger and frustration on the part
of Hong Kong people at the inability of the Government and the Hong
Kong authorities to contain, let alone resolve, the problem. There have been a number of public protests. There is widespread
resentment over the financial burden Hong Kong has to bear (now £60
million in 1989/90). The Hong Kong authorities are finding it
increasingly difficult to get local agreement to sites for new
accommodation for boat people, let alone secure the authority to pay
for it. The Governor of Hong Kong has warned that he will have to
ask HMG for further substantial financial assistance in order to
cope with the existing boat people population and future arrivals.
REPATRIATION ARRANGEMENTS
(a) Voluntary repatriation
5. 264 boat people have now returned to Vietnam under the voluntary programme agreed between UNHCR and the Vietnamese Government. The
latest batch (121) returned on 17 August. A further 700 volunteers
are in the pipeline, and arrangements are under negotiation for at
least one further flight. More are coming forward and we and the US
Government have pressed UNHCR to step up counselling those who have been definitively screened out (now over 3,000) to persuade them to volunteer. A major difficulty however is the extreme slowness of the Vietnamese bureaucratic process.
VIMAAE2
CONFIDENTIAL
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