To understand the significance of recent developments concerning Hong Kong's Vietnamese detention camps and the repatriation programs, it is important to be aware of the historical context from which such developments emerge.
In the aftermath of the Vietnam war, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese began to leave the country. Most of these people took to the seas in search of haven in countries throughout Southeast Asia. Hong Kong, which is located roughly 540 miles northeast of Vietnam, has received a steady influx of Vietnamese seeking asylum. In 1975, one boat alone brought 3,743 refugees to the territory's shores. People continued to leave Vietnam and arrive in Hong Kong at an increasing rate throughout the late seventies. In 1979, for instance, a total of 199, 945 Vietnamese fled the country. Of these, 68,748 landed in Hong Kong.
To deal with the growing dimensions of the refugee problem, the United Nations sponsored an international conference in July 1979. Attended by sixty-five countries, the 1979 Geneva Conference sought to resolve the crisis by granting temporary asylum to Vietnamese arriving in countries throughout Southeast Asia, providing permanent asylum to the boat people already in these countries, and establishing an orderly departure program for legal emigration out of Vietnam.6 Although the Geneva agreement stemmed the flow of refugees in the years immediately following the conference, the situation reached another impasse in the mid-eighties as asylum seekers continued to arrive at a steady rate, while resettlement in third countries began to decline.7 An international conference was convened in June 1989 to deal with this situation, and the Comprehensive Plan of Action, which established a system for refugee status determination and set forth a plan for the voluntary and forced return to Vietnam of those found not to be refugees, was adopted.
Long before the CPA was adopted, however, the Hong Kong government began to initiate its own policies to deal with the boat people who arrived on its shores. Recognizing that a significant number of Vietnamese were leaving their country due to the lure of resettlement abroad, the government tried to stem the flow of arrivals by implementing a system of "closed camp" detention for all boat people arriving on or after July 2, 1982. This policy was subsequently followed in 1988 by the announcement that any Vietnamese arriving after June 16, 1988 would be subjected to screening to determine his or her refugee status. Before 1988, all Vietnamese were regarded as primafacie refugees.8 After this decision, however, all those determined by the screening process not to have legitimate asylum claims would be sent back to Vietnam.
Neither the closed camp policy nor the decision to initiate a refugee screening process helped to stem the exodus from Vietnam. On the contrary, the number of boat people landing on the territory's shores continued unabated and increased dramatically towards the end of the eighties. After peaking at 34,499 arrivals in 1989, another 20,206 Vietnamese landed in Hong Kong in 1991. The decline in Vietnamese arrivals only came once the repatriation of non-refugees began with the government's orderly return program (ORP). Established in 1991 and still in effect, the government's deportation scheme included a guarantee of non-persecution from the Vietnamese government as well as reintegration assistance and monitoring from the UNHCR in Vietnam. In marked contrast to previous arrival figures, since 1992 the number of boat people to land in Hong Kong since the initiation of repatriation has subsided to an average of a few hundred arrivals per year.9
The approximately 5,600 Vietnamese who currently remain in Hong Kong represent a significant decline in the territory's population of boat people. The majority of these people have lived in Hong Kong's detention camps for several years. Having been "screened out," i.e. determined by the screening process to be non-refugees, these people will be forcibly deported to Vietnam by the Hong Kong government unless they decide to volunteer to return through the UNHCR's program. It is important to note that among this group, there are approximately 661 applicants and their families (roughly 2,300 people) who have yet to be "cleared," or accepted, for repatriation by Vietnam. These people risk becoming stateless if Vietnam refuses to accept them, and they are also denied the right to remain in Hong Kong or settle in a third country.
6 The Orderly Departure Program (ODP) was established to stem the flow of people departing from Vietnam and to provide them with a safe and dignified means of departure. Three main categories of people benefited from this program: those who had served three or more years of re-education, those with family abroad, and Amerasians.
7 The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia have accepted the most Vietnamese refugees, with 65,821, 25,659, 15,415, and 9,970 refugees resettled in each country respectively. Peaking in 1990 and 1991 with 7,656 and 6,467 refugees resettled in each year respectively, the rate of resettlement has since been on the decline.
8 In spite of the fact that Vietnamese who arrived in Hong Kong prior to 1988 were considered refugees, they were nonetheless kept in detention until they were resettled in a third country. After signing the Statement of Understanding with the UNHCR in 1988, the Hong Kong government agreed to progressively open the closed centers holding refugees and set up an open refugee center under UNHCR management.
9 According to Hong Kong government figures, there were twelve arrivals in 1991, 101 arrivals in 1992, 363 arrivals in 1994, 460 arrivals in 1995 and approximately 800 arrivals as of October 1996.