§ Mr. FoulkesTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the outcome of the discussions between the United Kingdom, United States of America and Hong Kong Governments on the Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydI refer the hon. Gentleman to the press release of 5 June entitled "Vietnamese asylum seekers", copies of which have been placed in the Library of the House.
§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many Vietnamese boat people detained in the camps in Hong Kong are under the age of 18 years.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydBecause of the way statistics are collected, no exact figures are readily available on the numbers of Vietnamese boat people in camps in Hong Kong under 18 years of age. However, I refer the hon. Gentleman to my reply to his question of 10 June 1991 at column412.
§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will give the amount spent on maintaining the detention centres for boat people in Hong Kong, together with the sum for providing food for detainees for the last year in which figures are available.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydFrom 1979 to 1991, Her Majesty's Government, the Hong Kong Government and the UNHCR spent approximately £343 million on maintaining those in the detention centres in Hong Kong. The cost of food for the financial year 1989–90 was £8.14 million.
§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has of the number of deaths of Vietnamese boat people during their journey to Hong Kong.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydNeither the Hong Kong Government nor UNHCR has any reliable estimate of the number of Vietnamese migrants who have died travelling to Hong Kong.
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§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which voluntary agencies run education programmes in detention centres in Hong Kong.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydSave the Children, International Social Service and Caritas.
§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many well baby clinics are operated in Hong Kong detention centres; and by which agencies.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydEach of the 10 detention centres has a well baby clinic, operated by Save the Children and Medecins Sans Frontieres.
§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the criteria used for determining political refugee status in the screening process used for Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThe criterion used is that contained in the 1951 United Nations convention and the 1967 protocol relating to the status of refugees which states that a person is a refugee if he has a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion and who, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of his country of nationality.
Screening procedures in Hong Kong were evolved in co-operation with UNHCR which monitors their application.
§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to China regarding the treatment of boat people travelling to Hong Kong.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydWe have on a number of occasions asked the Chinese Government to treat all undocumented Vietnamese found illegally in China in accordance with the comprehensive plan of action.