VIETNAMESE MIGRANTS
Background
1. Between the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the end of 1991, more than 180,000 Vietnamese migrants arrived in Hong Kong, which has always remained a country of first asylum. Until 1988 all arrivals were automatically treated as refugees and
resettled in the West. The UK took more than 13,000.
2.
From the early 1980s it was obvious that most people were
leaving Vietnam for economic reasons, rather than fleeing persecution and the resettlement countries (principally the United States - the ultimate goal of most of the migrants) were increasingly reluctant to take them. The numbers arriving soon far exceeded those being resettled. A major new influx in 1987-88 led to the introduction of screening procedures in Hong Kong to establish the claims of new
arrivals to refugee status.
3. The Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA), adopted at an international conference in 1989, provided for the return to
Vietnam of all those determined not to be refugees (the
screened-out). Many have now returned voluntarily under UNHCR auspices but the Americans have blocked international
consensus on mandatory returns.
4.
On 29 October 1991 the British, Hong Kong and Vietnamese governments reached agreement on the return to Vietnam of all non-refugees who were unwilling to go voluntarily and on the modalities of the return of those who arrived in Hong Kong
after that date. On 12 May 1992 we agreed the modalities for
those who were already in Hong Kong on 29 October 1991. In
all cases the Vietnamese Government undertook not to persecute any migrant returning to Vietnam and to allow the UNHCR full access to returnees for monitoring purposes.
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