TNAG-2872-FCO40-4126-Hong-Kong-repatriation-of-ex-China-Vietnamese-illegal-immigr-1993 — Page 41

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(a) under the CPA, persons determined not to be refugees

should return to their country of origin in accordance

with international practice. Local resettlement is not an option. If the non-refugees are released, it would be extremely difficult to keep track of them and equally difficult, if not impossible, to return them to Vietnam. The current repatriation programme would be jeopardized;

(b) it is likely that a considerable number of Vietnamese

asylum seekers, particularly those with no claim to refugee status, would abscond and fail to appear for any necessary immigration or refugee proceedings;

(c) if the Vietnamese migrants are allowed to take up

employment in Hong Kong, the wages that they are likely to receive would be considerably higher than that in Vietnam. This poses two difficulties: those who have been screened out as non-refugees will have more incentive to abscond if they know they are to be repatriated to Vietnam where the average monthly wage is only US$30; the mere rumour of employment opportunities in Hong Kong is likely to spark off a further influx of Vietnamese migrants to Hong Kong. This would be a very real threat. In early 1991, a rumour spread in Vietnam that those who could make their way to Hong Kong would be given job opportunities in Kuwait. This immediately sparked off a massive influx of over 20,000 Vietnamese migrants to Hong Kong. In mid 1993, there was another rumour in North Vietnam that employment opportunities were available for Vietnamese in Japan. a consequence, a total of 287 Vietnamese migrants have passed through Hong Kong on their way to Japan. Thus, if Vietnamese migrants were released from detention centres, there is a significant risk that a "pull factor" would be created which would once again encourage illegal departures from Vietnam.

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