U.N. Official Concerned for Viet Refugees

Jean-Pierre Hocke, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, is “deeply concerned” about Hong Kong’s action in moving Vietnamese “boat people” to a barren island off its shores, a spokeswoman said here Friday.

Hocke had hoped that such a move might have been avoided and a different solution found to Hong Kong’s problems in coping with a continuing influx of Vietnamese, the spokeswoman told a news briefing.

She said that 350 boat people who were taken last Tuesday to an island in the Soko group had since been transferred to more suitable reception centers but that a further 200 newcomers had been moved to the same island.

Hocke, she said, understands Hong Kong’s difficulties in handling massive arrivals of Vietnamese seeking asylum but believes the authorities should seek a solution in consultation with U.N. representatives in the British colony.

The spokeswoman said that 8,473 Vietnamese arrived in Hong Kong by boat during May, bringing the total number in camps and centers there to 37,557.

An international conference on Indochinese refugees is to be held in Geneva under U.N. auspices June 13-14.

Meantime, news reports from Hong Kong said that government officials kept 1,000 newly arrived boat people aboard their vessels Friday to keep them away from 5,300 hunger-striking refugees who say they would rather die than go back to Vietnam.