Refugee pressure on N.Z.

Press, 28 May 1979, Page 4

Refugee pressure on N.Z.

NZPA Hong Kong i New Zealand’s cautious) approach to accepting the thousands of Indo-Chinese! refugees cluttering Hong' Kong and countries on the! Asan peninsula may becomel a diplomatic embarrassment. j New Zealand businessmen! and diplomats from various nations in the area believe that New Zealand can take) many more refugees, and they expect stronger! pressure to be exerted on) the Muldoon Government to) adopt a more liberal! attitude. Interviews in the last two! months disclose a widely! held opinion that unless the! intake is markedly stepped up soon New Zealand will: find itself on the defensive '

I in dealing with charges that! (it has by no means taken as! (many refugees as it is) capable of settling. | Asian diplomats said that) 'they were conscious of New) ! Zealand’s small population (compared with its land area. I ( Third-country sources said! that they expected the new! Conservative Government in! [Britain to canvass New) [Zealand and Australia soon) about them taking more! (refugees from Hong Kong. ! They referred to! .statements made by) Government members in) ■London that Hong Kong! faced severe social pressures) ! unless action was taken) : quickly to alleviate the I colony's plight. Hong Kong has about 30.-' 000 Indo-Chinese refugees '

(awaiting resettlement. It has cleared 400 prisoners from a jail on an outlying island to ! house some of the refugees, [is using rarely used space in I a multi-level car park above .the Kowloon railway station ias a temporary shelter, and [has proposals to turn i several multi-storey factory .buildings into refugee (camps. Hong Kong’s problems are .compounded by a surge in .migration from China. /Officials estimate that about .75,000 illegal immigrants (have crossed into the colony [this year. A further 26,000 (have been arrested and (repatriated. | Thailand is trying to deal with more than 150,000 I refugees, many from 1 Vietnam but thousands also

from Laos and Kampuchea. Thai diplomats, say that they expect a further 50,000 from Kampuchea within a month. Malaysia is also housing thousands of refugees and has been promoting the Indonesian offer of a special island processing centre to help cope with the situation.

But Asian officials say that such a centre will hold no more than 10,000 persons, the equivalent of about one week’s outflow of refugees from Vietnam at present rates. United Nations officials say that there are about 70,000 motorised boats off the Vietnamese coast which are now being auctioned by Vietnamese public-security officials to persons wanting to leave Vietnam.