16/05/89
MADACA
16:26
O.D. A LONDON
NO. 012
003
DRAFT CONTRIBUTION TO SECRETARY OF STATE'S LETTER TO CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY
I should like to draw your attention to the very serious situation which we are now facing in Hong Kong as the result of the continuing influx of Vietnamese boat people and to put you on notice that I may need to revert to you at short notice with a request for emergency funding from the Gental Reserve.
de
So far this year 7,600 boat people have arrived in Hong Kong, (130% up on 1988). There have been 5,000 arrivals in the past four weeks and 2,300 in the last week. There are now well over 32,000 boat people in Hong Kong and there is a very real prospect of many thousands more in the next few months.
Hong Kong's capacity to accommodate new arrivals is already stretched to the limit.
All the existing centres for boat people in Hong Kong are full. So are the ferries which have been used for emergency accommodation. The authorities have already had to start using tents.
The local population is becoming increasingly resentful of the financial and social urden created by the Viet ese boat people and cannot understand why they are not sent back to Vietnam when their own relatives are swiftly returned to China if they arrive in Hong Kong, There is strong and increasing pressure for the policy of first asylum to be abandoned. This mood was reflected in an unprecedented vote of the LegCo Finance Committee on 3 May when 11
rs voted against the Administration's proposal to prepare further accommodation for new arrivals, the highest vote ever recroded against an expenditure proposal in the Finance Committee. If the International Conference on Indo-Chinese Refugees next month fails to produce a viable long-term solution, there is a real risk
hat the LegCo Finance Committee may refuse to vote any further funds for Vietnamese boat people.
DE
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