Since 1975, Hong Kong has received more than 200 000 people from Vietnam. No Vietnamese asylum seeker had ever been turned away.

    Despite its tiny size and steadily growing population, Hong Kong had absorbed some 16 000 Indo-Chinese people since the late 1970s. At the end of 2002, 34 Vietnamese refugees and 33 Vietnamese migrants still remained in the HKSAR. This was after the resettlement of more than 143 000 Vietnamese refugees in other countries, the repatriation of more than 67 000 Vietnamese migrants and the local resettlement of some 1 376 Vietnamese refugees/migrants since February 2000.

    With the formal conclusion of the internationally agreed Comprehensive Plan of Action and in view of the changed circumstances in Vietnam, the HKSAR ended the 'Port of First Asylum' policy for Vietnamese with effect from January 9, 1998.

    In practice, it means the special statutory provisions on the screening for refugee status and related review procedures for Vietnamese ceased to have effect on new arrivals from that date. These people are treated in the same way as illegal immigrants from elsewhere and will be repatriated as soon as possible.

    On February 22, 2000, the Government announced a Widened Local Resettlement Scheme to allow some 1 400 Vietnamese refugees and eligible Vietnamese migrants to apply for settlement in Hong Kong. As a corollary, the last refugee centre (Pillar Point Vietnamese Refugees Centre) in Hong Kong was closed on June 1, 2000. Thus the Vietnamese programme on which Hong Kong had worked for 25 years was concluded in an orderly, peaceful and humanitarian manner. By the end of 2002, a total of 955 Vietnamese refugees and 437 Vietnamese migrants had applied under the scheme to make Hong Kong their permanent home. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will continue to seek overseas resettlement opportunities for the few remaining Vietnamese refugees who had not joined the scheme. Efforts will also be continued to repatriate the ineligible Vietnamese migrants.

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