Refugees Dashing Their Dreams

By William Stewart/Hong Kong

They had reached safe harbor on a sail and a prayer. In the past 21 months alone, more than 40,000 Vietnamese boat people pitched their way across the South China Sea to Hong Kong, mostly in rickety, open vessels. Last week 51 of them -- eight men, 17 women and 26 children -- learned they had risked their lives for nothing. Awakened at 3 a.m. at the Phoenix House refugee detention center in Kowloon, they were asked to gather their belongings, then herded into trucks by government personnel, some equipped with batons and shields. From there they were taken to Kai Tak Airport and put aboard a jet. Destination: Hanoi.

The 51 were the first installment of what Britain has announced will be a mass forced repatriation of Vietnamese boat people. Those who are to be expelled from the crown colony -- the number could exceed 40,000 -- fail to qualify as political refugees (as opposed to economic migrants) and are therefore considered illegal immigrants. Under an agreement between London and Hanoi, Britain will pay Viet Nam some $620 for each returning boat person in exchange for the promise that the returnees will not be persecuted.

The predawn scheduling of the operation was meant to minimize publicity and protests. But reporters got wind of it and watched through the windows of Phoenix House as Vietnamese shouted and cried, some holding up makeshift signs saying WE'D RATHER DIE THAN GO BACK TO VIET NAM. No force appeared to be used.

"Everyone was calm and went quietly," announced a Hong Kong government spokesman. But within 48 hours, more than 6,000 Vietnamese boat people expressed their outrage in protests at three Hong Kong detention centers.

In Washington, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater denounced the policy as "unacceptable until conditions in Viet Nam improve." In London, opposition Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock assailed the move as a "shameful episode," accusing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of acting ! "tyrannically." Thatcher denounced Kinnock's criticism as "feeble and nonsense" and, in a swipe at the U.S., noted acidly that "those countries protesting about repatriation would do far better to take some of the boat people themselves." While the U.S., Canada, Australia and France have all taken many boat people in the past, none have offered shelter to those now facing deportation.

Meanwhile the overcrowded camps in Hong Kong threaten to erupt in violence and disease. The refugees' presence is deeply resented, since many of Hong Kong's 5.7 million people have close relatives who have been denied sanctuary and deported to China.

Though the British Foreign Office said there will be no more involuntary repatriations this year, they are certain to resume unless other nations offer an alternative. The boat people, says a senior British diplomat, "are chasing a dream that doesn't and can't exist." At least not in Hong Kong.

With reporting by Frank Melville/London