ENG-1995 — Page 477

POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION

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operations have been observed by independent monitors, whose reports are published in full.

Migrants returning to Vietnam are assured that they may do so safely and without fear of persecution. The Hong Kong Government will not return anyone whom it, or the UNHCR, believe is a genuine refugee. The Vietnamese Government has given firm guarantees that no returnees will be persecuted. All returnees are closely monitored on their return by the UNHCR to ensure that these guarantees are fully respected. Since March 1989, more than 48 086 Vietnamese migrants have returned to Vietnam from Hong Kong and there has not been a single substantiated case of persecution.

At the same time, the Hong Kong Government and the international community recognise that while the economy in Vietnam has been improving gradually, returnees may have difficulties in re-establishing themselves on their return. The UNHCR therefore provides financial assistance to help returnees resume their normal lives in Vietnam. The re-integration assistance programme run by the European Community in Vietnam has also offered returnees financial assistance. To complement these international efforts, the Hong Kong Government continued in 1995 to fund small- scale infrastructure projects in the poorer migrant-producing areas in Vietnam, in order to raise living standards and increase employment opportunities for returnees.

It cost the Hong Kong Government $750 million to look after the Vietnamese migrants and refugees in 1995. The United Kingdom Government contributed $81 million to the Orderly Repatriation Programme and the UNHCR's programme in Hong Kong. The UNHCR is responsible for the costs of the care and maintenance of Vietnamese migrants but in 1995, could meet only $19.3 million out of $116 an estimated million, bringing its accumulated debt to Hong Kong Government since 1989 to $1,068.5 million.

By the end of 1995, there were 20 225 Vietnamese migrants and 1 479 refugees in Hong Kong. All of the Vietnamese migrants have exhausted the status determination process. Their only future lies in their homeland — Vietnam. Hong Kong is still faced with a major humanitarian problem in trying to care for the Vietnamese population in detention and refugee centres. It was most unfortunate that when simplified procedures were put into practice progressively to expedite the repatriation process, hopes of resettlement overseas brought the repatriation process to a halt. The US Administration hoped to dispel the false hopes created by such initiatives by introducing a US/Vietnam bilateral programme offering those migrants who volunteered to return to Vietnam within a specified period a chance to receive an interview by the US Immigration and Naturalisation Services. Talks between Vietnam and the US were continuing at the end of the year.

During the year, 212 Ex-China Vietnamese Illegal Immigrants (ECVIIs), most of whom arrived in Hong Kong in 1993, were returned to China. The ECVIIS are Vietnamese migrants who settled in China before arriving in Hong Kong. Once they had sought and obtained asylum in China, they have no further claim to refugee status or resettlement. They are therefore regarded as illegal immigrants and are repatriated upon confirmation of their previous residence in China. On August 23, 1993, agreement was reached with China to repatriate all the ECVIIS in Hong Kong. The repatriation process was carried out in batches by land and by air. By March 1995, about 318 ECVIIS were still in Hong Kong. After thorough investigation by the