TNAG-1984-FCO40-2817-Presentation-of-UK-policy-on-Hong-Kong-to-the-media-1989 — Page 57

VI:

VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE IN HONG KONG

1.

Since 1975, some 133,000 boat people have arrived in Hong Kong from Vietnam, of whom over 116,000 have been resettled abroad. In accordance with the outcome of the United Nations Conference on

Indo-Chinese refugees held in Geneva in 1979, Hong Kong and some countries in the region have provided temporary shelter to all boat people arriving from Vietnam, on the understanding that they would be eventually resettled by the international community. In the years immediately after that Conference, the number of boat people remaining in Hong Kong steadily dimished to a low of about 7,600 people in 1987. But in the summer of that year a new influx began: in 1988, 18,000 boat people arrived in Hong Kong, whilst resettlement amounted to only 2,700. By the end of February 1989, there was a total of some 26,000 refugees and boat people in centres

in Hong Kong.

2.

In recent years, the pattern of arrivals has also changed. About 70% of recent arrivals are from the northern part of Vietnam and 99% are ethnic Vietnamese (some 80% of arrivals in 1979 were

ethnic Chinese). Many of the resettlement countries have questioned whether such people are in fact genuine refugees or simply economic migrants. They were unwilling to accept boat people at anything like the previous rate. Against this background, it was clear that Hong Kong could no longer be regarded as a staging post to a future

that did not and could not exist.

3.

In response to these new circumstances, the Hong Kong Government decided, with HMG's full support, that from 16 June 1988 all boat people would be subject to a screening procedure, approved by the UNHCR, to determine whether they qualify as genuine refugees. New arrivals must be able to show a well-founded fear of persecution. Those who qualify as genuine refugees are moved to refugee centres to await resettlement overseas. Those who do not have no access to resettlement. They will remain in Hong Kong until acceptable arrangements for their return to Vietnam, including safeguards for their treatment there, have been made.

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