boat people who have found shelter there. The Hong Kong
government and people have dealt magnificently with this
appalling problem, but Hong Kong is being overwhelmed by
the sheer weight of numbers. The vast majority of those
reaching Hong Kong are not political refugees but
economic migrants, who have no hope of being accepted for
resettlement elsewhere in the world. Hong Kong cannot
offer them a home or a livelihood.
At the recent international conference in Geneva,
the international community pledged to resettle all those
in the region who qualify as refugees. We have
undertaken to accept 2000 more refugees from Hong Kong
over the next 3 years. We have also announced our
readiness to contribute £5 million towards the costs of a
regional processing centre to which all these refugees
from Hong Kong and the region could be transferred
quickly while they await resettlement.
At the Geneva Conference I urged the international
community to accept the reality that all those boat
people who do not qualify as refugees must find their
future in Vietnam. We were able to secure general
recognition of this fact. The report of the Select
Committee on Foreign Affairs also recognised that it is
intolerable for those who do not qualify as refugees to
have to spend years in camps. I am glad to say that
important progress is now being made in our bilateral
talks with the Vietnamese on repatriation.
I ahve
discussed this problem with the Vietnamese Foreign
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