The United States, Canada and Australia may be asked to increase the number of Vietnamese refugees they accept each year with an eye toward closing Hong Kong's boat people camps, an official said Friday.
The request would be part of a plan by the United Nations to resettle or return to Vietnam all of the remaining 32,000 refugees held in Hong Kong detention camps by 1996, the official, who is involved with resettlement, said.The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Hong Kong, Jahanshah Assadi, said he would meet Tuesday with officials from Hong Kong and several diplomatic missions to discuss the refugee issue.
The Hong Kong government, which has been begrudingly hosting Vietnamese boat people for nearly two decades, has been increasing calls for its camps to be put to other use.
The United States accepts 40 percent of the those Vietnamese confirmed by the UNHCR as genuine refugees. "We're committed to stick with the 40 percent," a U.S. spokesman said, "but I suppose there could be some room for change."