Thai Mavy ordered to repel refugees

Press, 5 June 1979, Page 8

Thai Mavy ordered to repel refugees

NZPA-Reuter Bangkok The Thai Navy has been ordered to stop boats with Vietnamese refugees aboard from entering Thai territorial waters, a Naval source has said in Bangkok. The “Bangkok Post” newspaper quoted official sources as saying the Government had ordered the Navy to keep out all boats with refugees. Commenting on this, the source said the orders had been given some time ago. But he said there might be some exceptions which would have to be considered individually by Navy commanders. The “Bangkok Post” report quoted officials as saying “The Navy and police patrol boats will tow vessels trying to bring the boat people to shore out to sea again.”

It added: “The Government does not consider refugees the people who are being systematically allowed out of their country by their own Government.” About 1000 Vietnamese waiting in Hong Kong harbour aboard the British freighter Sibonga lor almost a week began landing yesterday pending their resettlement in Britain. The refugees were ferried in groups in Government launches to a pier, where they were loaded on to buses and taken to a transit camp. Britain has accepted responsibility for the ship’s refugees, rescued off two sinking boats in the South China Sea on May 21. A Government spokesman said another 1043 refugees have arrived in junks in 24 hours, pushing the number ■ of boat people in the colony past 42,000.