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people in the scheme but decided not to do so. They will be eligible to apply under the scheme and their applications will be considered on their merits. In addition, the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986 makes provision for children and grandchildren of former BDTCs born after 1997 to acquire British Overseas citizenship if they would otherwise be stateless. As the Committee noted, the Government gave a specific assurance to Parliament in 1986 that if any solely British Nationalcame under pressure to leave Hong Kong in the future, and had nowhere to go, would expect the government of the day to consider the case for admission here with considerable and particular sympathy. The Government stand by that commitment.
27. The Committee recommended that the immigration rules should be changed so that periods spent by Hong Kong British Students studying in the United Kingdom for recognised qualifications at tertiary level or above should count towards "residency" (paragraph 4.24). The Government have interpreted this to mean that such periods of study should lead to settlement in the United Kingdom. Under the immigration rules, students are regarded as coming here for a temporary purpose and admission as a student does not provide an avenue to settlement. The Government see no reason to depart from this principle in the case of students from Hong Kong and therefore do not propose to implement the Committee's recommendation in this regard. It is worth noting, however, that if a person who has been in the United Kingdom as a student achieves settlement by some other means (for example, by marriage) and then applies for citizenship, the period spent here as a student can be counted towards the residence requirement for citizenship.
Vietnamese Boat People
28. The Government welcome the Committee's analysis of this problem. Since 1975, nearly 170,000 Vietnamese boat people have arrived in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has continued to operate a policy of first asylum. No asylum seekers have ever been turned away. As the Committee rightly states, the Hong Kong Government had no alternative but to introduce a screening policy in June 1988 (paragraph 5.2). The introduction of screening was precipitated by a major new influx of boat people in 1987 and 1988 and by a change in the pattern of arrivals.
29. In 1989 34,000 Vietnamese asylum-seekers arrived in Hong Kong, bringing the total number to over 57,000 by the end of last year. So far this year the number of new arrivals is down on last year's figures although there was an upsurge towards the end of April. Two thirds of this year's new arrivals came from the South of Vietnam, a reversal of the trend in 1989 when the great majority came from the North. About the same proportion are ethnic Chinese. It is still too early to be sure how the rate of arrivals will develop and whether Hong Kong will face an influx on the 1989 scale. But the sharp fall in the total number of arrivals as well as in the proportion coming from the North may suggest that the Government's decision to repatriate a small group of non-volunteers last December (see paragraph 33 below), coupled with the intensive publicity compaigns mounted in recent months in the North of Vietnam, has begun to make a real impact.
30. Good progress has also been made in resettling those with refugee status in accordance with the pledges given at the Geneva Conference in June 1989. More than half of the 13,000 refugees in Hong Kong at that time will have been resettled in the West by June 1990. The Philippines Government have also agreed that refugees from Hong Kong can be transferred to the refugee processing centre at Bataan pending resettlement, thus helping to relieve pressure on accommodation in the territory. If the transfer of refugees to Bataan proceeds smoothly, there is thus every prospect that most, if not all, of those with refugee status will leave Hong Kong by the end of this year.
31. Since the Geneva Conference last June, it has been accepted by the entire international community that all those screened out as non-refugees must return to their country of origin. It was also agreed at the Geneva Conference that in the first instance every effort should be made to encourage voluntary returns; but that if after the passage of a reasonable amount of time the voluntary programme was not making sufficient progress, alternatives would be considered. The Government are doing everything they can to encourage more volunteers to come forward and to speed up the rate of voluntary returns. So far this year the number of volunteers has increased and over 1,900 have returned to
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