HONG KONG'S crippled Vietnamese repatriation programme sustained another body-blow yesterday when most of the 100 boat people deported on a government-chartered flight refused to disembark at Hanoi's Noi Bai Airport.
A diplomatic standoff rapidly developed, with the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry saying the deportees were not to be forced from the plane while British officials refused to contemplate their return to Hong Kong.
The territory's voluntary repatriation scheme came to an abrupt halt last month when the boat people learned of proposals by the US Congress to allow up to 20,000 Vietnamese to settle in America.
Yesterday's tense eight-hour stalemate has threatened to scupper future flights of the forced repatriation scheme - the only measure now open to Hong Kong to empty all its detention centres by next year's deadline.
The most determined of the group - 30 men, women and children - finally walked from the Royal Brunei 767 charter shortly before 6 pm (Hanoi time).
After Correctional Services Department officers had battled to drag the Vietnamese, some wearing handcuffs, onto the plane in Hong Kong trouble again flared when they were stopped from removing the deportees in Hanoi.
At one stage it appeared the Government might have order the plane back to Hong Kong - a move a British source said would have been 'the worst signal yet'.
