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through the resettlement and repatriation programmes.
Even
so there was a net reduction of only 3,688 in the Vietnamese
population during the year. By the end of 1990 Hong Kong was still burdened with looking after the 52,036 Vietnamese
who remained. It is imperative that effective and durable
solutions should be worked out for these people so that they
need not languish indefinitely in camps in the territory.
21. The resettlement programme for Vietnamese with
refugee status progressed satisfactorily during the year and
continued to meet the targets set by the Geneva
Conference. Coupled with the establishment of a new
Regional Resettlement Transit Centre in Bataan in the
Philippines for up to 5,000 refugees from Hong Kong
there was a prospect of Hong Kong being able to close 2
of its 3 open centres for refugees and thus be left with a
refugee population of well under 5,000 by the end of 1991. This transfer arrangement was made possible by an agreement
during the year between the British and Phillippines
Governments, and the centre was built with a contribution of
three million pounds by the British Government.
22.
Another agreement was reached in February 1990 by the
British and Vietnamese Governments on the return to Vietnam
of 1,000 volunteers a month as from May, after which there
was a steady increase in the number of volunteers returning
home to Vietnam. The numbers, however, still fell short of
the agreed figure of 1,000 per month.
23. In September, following discussions in Hanoi, a third
agreement was reached between the British, Vietnamese and
Hong Kong Governments and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees on streamlined procedures which
should help to accelerate the voluntary repatriation programme. Also agreed was a programme to repatriate
non-refugees, who, while not actively volunteering to
return to Vietnam, were nevertheless not opposed to repatriation. This new programme is administered by the
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