China says Hong Kong's Vietnamese refugees must go
But as handover looms, their fate is up in air
June 24, 1997
Web posted at: 6:06 p.m. EDT (2206 GMT)HONG KONG (CNN) -- After the fall of Saigon to Communist North Vietnamese forces 22 years ago, boat people by the hundreds of thousands fled their homeland, using anything that would float.
Many ended up in Hong Kong, where they have been living in a state of limbo. And with the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese imminent, their future has become even more cloudy and fraught with anxiety.
The Chinese government has told the Hong Kong authorities that all remaining Vietnamese refugees -- more than 1,000 people -- must be removed by the time of the July 1 handover. They would follow 110,000 others, who in recent years have been repatriated to Vietnam from Hong Kong by the current British administration.
CNN's TOM MINTIER reports from Hong Kong VXtreme Streaming Video
What will happen to the remaining refugees as July 1 approaches is still very much up in the air.
"I don't see [repatriation] happening [by July 1]," says Paul Meredith, a field officer for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. "I don't think that's realistic. I would say that China doesn't see that as realistic either."
The most likely scenario for the boat people is that nothing will change -- that they will continue to live in refugee camps indefinitely -- as they have for years.
Often, the refugees have been treated like criminals, locked in detention with frustration turning to rage and hopelessness. Many live in the Pillar Point camp, in some cases because of crimes they committed in Hong Kong.
Theft and drug abuse -- particularly heroin use -- are two large problems.
China's tough talk has had at least one effect. Some countries, including the United States, have agreed to reconsider the cases of many refugees who do not wish to return to Vietnam.
Ha Thi Thuy and her three children are among those hoping for a new life in America. Her family has lived in Pillar Point for six years. Her entreaties to U.S. authorities to join two brothers living in California have been rejected several times.
"I don't think the U.S. government is generous enough to let me go, but I really hope I'll be able to live with my relatives," she says.
For a group of 30 men living in the camps, the news is much better. Using documents and old photographs, they have been able to prove that they aided American forces during the Vietnam War and thus would face persecution if returned to Vietnam. The U.S. government is letting them emigrate.
Pam Baker, an attorney for Hong Kong-based Refugee Concern, says phone calls from U.S. servicemen who served with these Vietnamese refugees and recognized them in photographs made all the difference.
"People would ring up and say ... 'This guy fought with me,'" she says. "They were really giving the State Department hell."
But for Na Thi Thuy and the rest, their final destiny remains to be decided. And when it is, that decision will likely be influenced more by the government of China than by the international community.
Correspondent Tom Mintier contributed to this report.
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