WORLD : Britain Urges Forced Repatriation of Vietnamese Flooding Hong Kong

Britain called today for the forced repatriation of Vietnamese boat people flooding Hong Kong, saying the colony will soon be unable to cope with the onslaught of arrivals.

Addressing a two-day international conference on Indochina refugees called to endorse a plan of action, British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe said voluntary repatriation alone is no answer.

“The future of Vietnamese people does not lie in the cramped conditions of camps in overcrowded places like Hong Kong, with no hope of eventual settlement,” he said.

“The future of Vietnamese people must lie in Vietnam,” Howe told delegates from about 50 nations.

But Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger disagreed with the British position, maintaining that return trips by refugees must be voluntary “and not the result of intolerable conditions of detention.”

The United States has pledged to take in 22,000 refugees over the next three years, Australia 11,000 and France 4,400.

There are 40,000 of the refugees in Hong Kong now with hundreds more arriving daily.

The British plan of action scraps 10-year-old principles of automatic asylum to include tough screening to determine whether refugees are fleeing political persecution or economic hardship.