§ Mr. Barry FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on Vietnamese migrants.
§ Mr. GoodladOn 12 May the British, Hong Kong and Vietnamese Governments reached agreement on the second phase of the orderly repatriation programme,112W covering the repatriation from Hong Kong of Vietnamese illegal immigrants—that is, those who under the screening procedures agreed and monitored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have been found not to be refugees.
This second phase agreed in principle last October with Vietnam, covers those Vietnamese migrants who were already in Hong Kong on 29 October 1991 when the orderly repatriation programme was announced. Earlier arrangements covered those who arrived in Hong Kong after that date and those who, having already been repatriated voluntarily, returned to Hong Kong in the hope of collecting a further UNHCR reintegration allowance.
There are still 56,000 Vietnamese migrants in Hong Kong, the vast majority of whom will probably not qualify as refugees. Those who are screened out will be encouraged to return under the UNHCR scheme. We hope most will do so. But inevitably some will not. These will be returned under the orderly repatriation programme.
The orderly repatriation programme is based on the firm principles that nobody whom UNHCR believes to be a refugee will be returned and that no returning migrant will face persecution. The Vietnamese Government have reaffirmed their commitment not to persecute returnees and to facilitate access to them by UNHCR and others to ensure that this guarantee is respected.
Since 1988, more than 20,000 Vietnamese migrants have returned home from the region without a single substantiated case of persecution.