§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many Vietnamese refugees are currently in Hong Kong; what plans he has for their resettlement(a) up to 1997 and (b) after 1997; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. EggarOn 27 November there were 9,359 Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. In May we decided to accept into the United Kingdom a further 468 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong over the next two years. We are pursuing our diplomatic campaign to urge other resettlement countries to take more refugees from Hong Kong. We aim to have fully resolved this problem well before 1997.