Vietnam and Britain signed a plan Tuesday that could force more than 50,000 Vietnamese boat people home from Hong Kong and begin the end of a saga that has seen 1.5 million Vietnamese flee communism in rickety boats.
British colonial officials said the first group of boat people will be forced to return home in November.Secretary of Security Alistair Asprey said he hoped all boat people would be gone in "two or three years."
The repatriation of those 256 boat people will mark the first step in a controversial program that governments throughout Asia hope will send more than 100,000 boat people - against their will - back to Vietnam.
Asprey said Hong Kong police have been authorized to use force to board the boat people on homebound planes.
As part of the deal, he said, Vietnam promised not to "persecute or harass" the returning boat people.
In exchange, Vietnam will receive about $1,000 for each boat person who returns home, according to diplomats.