Boat people adrift
Sir: Mr Robert Chambers is badly misin- formed about our policy on Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong (Letters, 17 December). There is no analogy between them and the Cossacks.
Hong Kong continues to provide tem- porary asylum to some 25,000 boat people from Vietnam, of whom over 15,000 have refugee status. The Government recently called for a new international effort, in whch the UK is in principle prepared to play its part, to resettle these refugees.
Since June of last year, all boat people are being screened after their arrival to determine whether or not they meet the internationally accepted criteria for re- fugee status. Those who do not meet these criteria have no prospect of resettlement in the West. Their future can only lie in their own country and it must be right to seek satisfactory arrangements, in consultation with the Vietnamese authorities, for their return. We have made it clear that these arrangements must be humane and that the reintegration of those returned will need to be carefully monitored.
We would not repatriate any boat people to Vietnam if we were not satisfied that they would be properly treated on their return and would not be punished. It is simply not correct, as Mr Chambers claims, that no guarantees about their treatment have been either requested or given. On the contrary both we and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have sought and received assur- ances that those who return will not be punished: and the Vietnamese Foreign Minister has publicly confirmed this.
Several hundred boat people who do not have refugee status have already expressed a wish to return to Vietnam. Arrangements for this are being made under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who will monitor their return to ensure that they are properly treated and will provide financial assistance. We hope that other non-refugees will choose to follow this example.
The Government believe that a solution on these lines is the only practicable one for all those boat people in Hong Kong who do not qualify as refugees.
Olenarthur
Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London SWI
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