TNAG-1972-FCO40-2805-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation-1989 — Page 86

has

Cen

en maintained, in large part, by substantial international

relief assistance and through the permanent resettlement of large

numbers of refugees in the third countries.

Overall camp populations are considerably lower, and the

rates of arrival of new refugees have come no where near those of

the 1978-1980 period, when the situation reached crisis

proportions. Yet, the combined factors of continuing arrivals

(albeit at a lower rate), high birth rates in the camps,

and a

decline in resettlement admissions to third countries have caused

considerable concern among the countries of first asylum.

When arrivals of Vietnamese boat persons in 1987-88 rose

significantly above the levels of preceding years, countries

throughout the region indicated their intention to review and

tighten up their policies of offering temporary asylum to

refugees.

persons.

Thailand captured international attention in early

1988 by denying entry and pushing back to sea newly arriving boat

Observers in the region have reported that over three

thousand boat persons were pushed back during the last year, with

more than two hundred known deaths. While such measures are no

longer official policy, sporadic push-backs have continued, and

any new arrivals reaching shore are detained at a holding center

near the Cambodian border, pending a possible return to Vietnam.

In June of 1988, the Hong Kong authorities and the British

government implemented a new policy by which all newly arriving

boat persons are considered illegal entrants and are subject to

return to Vietnam unless they are determined to have legitimate

3