TNAG-2067-FCO40-2945-Vietnamese-boat-people-unaccompanied-minors-in-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 43

screening procedure, approved and monitored by the United Nations

High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The second Geneva

International Conference, held in June of 1989, agreed on a

Comprehensive Plan of Action, under which screening, based on the

Hong Kong model, and with the full involvement of the UNHCR, would

be introduced throughout the South East Asian region. This

signalled the end of the era of automatic resettlement. Asylum

seekers were thereafter to be divided into those accorded refugee

status, who would await settlement in the West; and it was agreed

that those whom screening had determined not to be refugees should

return to their country of origin.

So far over 1,000 volunteers have returned to Vietnam, and the first

group of people who had not volunteered, but who had been determined

by the screening process not to be refugees, were returned from Hong

Kong in December 1989.

The Comprehensive Plan of Action carries a separate section devoted

to the treatment of unaccompanied children. Its cardinal principles

are that any action on behalf of children should be, first of all,

in the best interest of the child, and secondly, in the interests of

family unity. It provides for the establishment of a Committee to

be made up of representatives of the Hong Kong government, UNHCR and

any other appropriate agencies, tasked to find solutions as quickly

as possible on a case by case basis for each child. Unaccompanied

children should be identified as soon as possible after arrival:

those over 15 should be screened, but by specially qualified staff;

for those under 15, the Committee should take the decision on which

solution would be in the best interests of the child.

X

The UNHCR have established the Committee in Hong Kong and have appointed an executive agency to deal with the detailed casework. Research so far has shown that unaccompanied children in the camps

in Hong Kong tend to fall into two categories: those whose parents

have already reached the West, and those whose parents remained

behind in Vietnam. In a very large number of cases, the children

are in the care of uncles or aunts in a wider network of extended

Vietnamese families. This makes it difficult to estimate the total

number of unaccompanied children in Hong Kong, but we believe the