ENG-1994 — Page 508

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POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION

resettlement. The ECVIIS are therefore regarded as illegal immigrants and are repatriated upon confirmation of their previous residence in China. Following discussions with the Chinese Government, agreement was reached with China on August 23, 1993 to repatriate all the ECVIIS stranded in local camps. The repatriation process was carried out in batches, both by land and by air. At the end of the year, all the ECVIIs, except for 447 whose identities had yet to be verified by the Chinese authorities, had been returned to China.

In November and December, the government released 125 Vietnamese migrants and 14 ECVIIS whose continued detention would have been unlawful. The 125 Vietnamese migrants had applied for voluntary repatriation but clearance for their return had not been obtained from the Vietnamese authorities. The government is seeking to resolve the difficulties in securing the return of these volunteers with the Vietnamese authorities. The 14 ECVIIS were released because the Chinese authorities had not been able to verify their legal status in China and therefore could not accept them back. The released ECVIIS will now be screened. If determined to be refugees, they will be resettled overseas. If not, the government will seek to repatriate them to Vietnam. A group of lawyers has also initiated habeas corpus actions for a number of other Vietnamese migrants in detention.

Hong Kong is still faced with a major humanitarian problem in trying to care for 24 312 people in Vietnamese detention and refugee centres. In February 1994, the Fifth Steering Committee of the International Conference on Indo-Chinese Refugees met in Geneva and set the end of 1995 as the target date for the return of all non-refugees to Vietnam. A - technical meeting followed in June, at which resettlement countries agreed to apply their immigration criteria flexibly, with a view to accepting more of the refugees who have been in the camps in the region for a long time.