§ Sir Patrick Wallasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the number of Vietnamese refugees now in Hong Kong; and how many have been there for one year, two years or three years, respectively.
§ Mr. RifkindOn 15 December there were 13,114 Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong: 4,156 have been in Hong Kong for three years or more, 4,714 for two years or more, 6,294 for one year or more and 6,820 for less than one year.
§ Sir Patrick Wallasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many Vietnmese refugees from Hong Kong have been resettled in other countries in each of the past three years; and how many have been taken by each of the various countries for resettlement.
§ Mr. RifkindSome 37,468 Vietnamese refugees were resettled from Hong Kong in 1980; 17,818 in 1981 and 8,847 in 1982—up to the end of November—in the following countries:
1980 1981 1982 USA 21,053 12,222 6,548 Canada 6,548 2,070 1,041 United Kingdom 6,076 1,775 238 Australia 984 500 345 France 188 362 169 West Germany 537 81 45 Denmark 321 220 71 Switzerland 414 97 14 Norway 180 187 72 Austria 318 14 — New Zealand 217 2 — Netherlands 96 102 110 Spain 250 — — Sweden 95 2 13 Japan 36 68 5 Greece 42 — — New Caledonia 4 12 21 Belgium 29 6 2 China 33 1 2 Bermuda 7 — — Taiwan 4 1 — Luxembourg 5 — — Vietnam (voluntary repatriation) — 2 2 Vanuatu 2 — — Ireland — 1 — In addition, 109, 93 and 50 Vietnamese refugees were allowed to settle in Hong Kong in 1980, 1981 and 1982, respectively.
§ Sir Patrick Wallasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many Vietnamese boat people have been rescued by British ships in the past three years; how many of these have been resettled in the United Kingdom; and how many still remain in Hong Kong, respectively.
§ Mr. RifkindA total of 1,537 Vietnamese boat people have been rescued by British ships since January 1980; 287W 856 have been resettled in the United Kingdom, and 52—including two who were born there—are still in Hong Kong.
§ Sir Patrick Wallasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about the future of the boat people rescued by SS "City of Edinburgh" and SS "Po Yang".
§ Mr. RifkindEight of the 34 people rescued by the "City of Edinburgh" have been resettled in the United States of America. The remainder are expected in due course to be received in the United Kingdom. Eighteen of the 42 boat people rescued by the "Po Yang" have been resettled in the United States of America, Canada and Australia. We are still considerng resettlement of the remainder.
§ Sir Patrick Wallasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will approach the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and request him to speed up the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees now in Hong Kong.
§ Mr. RifkindWe shall continue to take every suitable opportunity to draw the attention both of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and of countries of possible resettlement to the numbers of refugees remaining in Hong Kong. For example, our permanent representative in Geneva made an urgent appeal on 12 October in his statement to this year's meeting of the executive committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
§ Sir Patrick Wallasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what facilities for voluntary education or training exist in the closed refugee camps in Hong Kong.
§ Mr. RifkindEnglish, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, mathematics and art classes are available for children and young adults in the Chimawan closed centre. English, French and Chinese classes are also held in the Hei Ling Chau closed centre.
§ Sir Patrick Wallasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many Vietnamese refugees now in Hong Kong are in open or closed camps, respectively.
§ Mr. RifkindOn 15 December there were 9,013 Vietnamese refugees in open centres and 3,679 in closed centres in Hong Kong.