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Migrants 'do not want to stay in SAR'

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Most stateless Vietnamese would rather settle overseas than get a Hong Kong identity card, a migrant said yesterday.

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The man, who called an RTHK radio phone-in programme featuring security officials, said they were now forced to accept the residency offer under an integration plan announced on Tuesday.

Under the plan, 973 Vietnamese refugees and 435 migrants will be given six weeks to decide whether to accept identity cards, as the last boat people camp at Tuen Mun's Pillar Point will close by the end of May.

Of the 435 migrants, 327 are not refugees and have been rejected by the Vietnamese Government as non-nationals. The rest are relatives.

The migrant said most did not want to stay and had relatives overseas helping them with resettlement.

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'But now we're left with no choice but to accept the chance of getting identity cards. If we do not accept, what will happen to us?' Deputy Secretary for Security Timothy Tong Hin-ming said migrants could still apply for resettlement overseas if they had relatives there, although official efforts had failed.

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