TNAG-2460-FCO40-3581-Hong-Kong-annual-report-for-1992-1992 — Page 13

VII.

VIETNAMESE MIGRANTS

1992 saw

Vietnamese migrant

arrived in 1992,

a major breakthrough for Hong Kong on the

problem. Only

whereas over

Vietnamese migrants

were either resettled

overseas or repatriated to Vietnam; the corresponding figures were 20,206 and 14,214. There were, however, still

Vietnamese migrants and

refugees in Hong Kong

for 1991

over

at the end of 1992.

2.

The present policy of the British and Hong Kong Governments on the Vietnamese migrant problem is based firmly

on the

Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) agreed

70 Governments at the

internationally by over

D

Geneva

Conference of June 1989. The key elements of this policy maintenance of first asylum, screening of new arrivals to

determine their status, resettlement of those found to be refugees and safe repatriation to Vietnam of those found not to be refuges are all part of the CPA.

3.

-

The resettlement

Conference.

of refugees continued to proceed

satisfactorily and to meet the targets set by the Geneva

Canada, Australia, and the United States

continued to be the three major resettlement countries.

newly screened in refugees were transferred in Regional Refugee Transit Centre in Bataan, be processed there for overseas resettlement. significant drop in the refugee population from 4,200 in January, 1992 to about

at the end of the

Over

1992 to the

Philippines to

There was a

about

year.

4.

The full implementation of the CPA was made possible by the agreement reached by the British, Hong Kong and Vietnamese Governments on 29 October, 1991, which provided for the orderly repatriation of all Vietnamese non-refugees

in Hong Kong. Since then

Vietnamese have been returned

under this Orderly Repatriation

Programme (ORP).

The