WORLD : Send Back Boat People, Briton Says
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HONG KONG — The British Foreign Office minister responsible for Hong Kong said today the only solution to a massive influx of Vietnamese boat people into the colony is to send them back to Vietnam.
Francis Maude, minister of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs, said Britain is negotiating with Vietnam on a program to send back tens of thousands of boat people living in the colony’s cramped refugee camps. “We are working very hard to find a lasting solution which can only involve the sending back to Vietnam those people screened out,” he said.
About 55,000 Vietnamese are languishing in the colony’s overcrowded detention centers. More than 32,000 Vietnamese have sailed into Hong Kong so far this year.
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