Vietnamese people in Hong Kong

Many of the Vietnamese people in Hong Kong reside there largely because of the instabilities and warfare in Vietnam for many years. Vietnamese refugees illegally entering Hong Kong has been a problem that plagued the Hong Kong government for 25 years. The problem only ceased to be in 2000.

Vietnam War and refugee migration

After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the victorious Vietcong forces reunified the northern and southern halves of the country. At this time, many people began to migrate out of Vietnam out of fears of the new Communist Government.

Hong Kong received its first wave of Vietnamese refugees on 4 May, 1975. The 3,743 strong refugee group was found hiding in a Danish freight ship, and all were accepted as refugees. This started a wave of refugee migrations to Hong Kong.

In 1979, Hong Kong declared itself to be a First Port of Refuge. At the same time, the Vietcong was committing a series of population cleansing operations in major cities in Vietnam, causing many Vietnamese people to seek refugee status in Hong Kong. In 1979 alone, more than 68,700 people arrived to Hong Kong. A year later, more than 100,000 people migrated from Vietnam to seek refugee rights in Hong Kong. At this time, these migrants usually succeeded in gaining refugee status, and were accepted by Western countries.

By 1987, Western countries begun to lower its quotas for Vietnamese refugees. This, coupled with a large increase of Vietnamese migrants entering Hong Kong (many of them were misguided by a rumour that Vietnamese migrants can gain amnesty just by entering Hong Kong soil), led to the government to adopt a Comprehensive Plan Of Action on 16 June, 1988. The plan mainly separated political refugees (who were classified as refugees) from economic refugees (who were classified as "boat people"). Economic refugees were considered as illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants were denied the right of being transferred to a third country, and were all deported back to Vietnam.

The Comprehensive Plan Of Action were completely carried out by 1994. During the late 1980s and 1990s, the Hong Kong government began to broadcast a Vietnamese radio announcement in an attempt to deter the mass of Vietnamese migrants from entering Hong Kong. The broadcast eventually came to be known as the Bắt đầu từ nay broadcast.

Starting in the early 1990s, the Hong Kong government began an orderly repatriation programme. The programme started out as a voluntary endeavour, but it was met with cold receptions by the Vietnamese migrants, despite an agreement that was made with the Vietnamese government that bars retributions against the migrants upon their return. Eventually, the Hong Kong government began to forcibly repatriate the Vietnamese boat people.

As the situation in Vietnam improves, and the boat people flow was stemmed, Hong Kong's status as a Port of First Refuge was revoked on 9 January, 1998. However, until 2000, Hong Kong still issues identity cards to the boat people who still resides in Hong Kong, in an effort to allow them to assimilate into the society.

The United Nations still owes Hong Kong 1.16 billion HKD in reimbursement for its handling of the boat peoples, the problem is still unresolved as of 2006.