Vietnamese Illegal Immigrants To Hong Kong

EDM number 96 in 1989-90, proposed by William Powell on 28/11/1989.

That this House recognises that the problem of Vietnamese immigration has now become acute in Hong Kong, with a total population of Vietnamese immigrants close to 57,000, of whom over 38,000 are likely to fail to acquire refugee status; notes that the vast majority of these people have called on the Chinese coast during the course of their journeys to Hong Kong and that some have travelled most of the way by bus overland; endorses the Comprehensive Plan of Action adopted in June by the International Conference on Indo-Chinese Refugees in Geneva, including the principle that all those determined not to be refugees should return to their country of origin in accordance with international practices reflecting the responsibilities of states towards their own citizens; recognises that the process of screening in Hong Kong is thorough, fair and in accordance with internationally accepted criteria; notes that over 3,500 people have now been determined by the screening process not to be refugees; accepts a programme of voluntary return alone will not be sufficient to deal with the scale of the problem; notes that other Western countries, while prepared to take from Hong Kong for resettlement those who are genuine refugees, are not prepared to accept non-refugees; and calls upon the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to make arrangements to return to Vietnam all those who are not refugees, provided that the Vietnamese government undertakes not to subject them to punishment or discrimination and that their treatment on return to Vietnam is properly monitored.

This motion has been signed by a total of 41 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.