Refugee Vietnamese Chinese

AN OPERATION to repatriate more than 1,300 Chinese Vietnamese illegal immigrants could take months and will cost the taxpayer millions of dollars more this year, Government refugee co-ordinator Brian Bresnihan said yesterday.

He warned that if the Chinese refused to back down from their demands that each immigrant be identified, the Government would have to introduce an emergency plan to cope with the 1,333 in the territory.

''This can take weeks, even months,'' Mr Bresnihan said. ''On our part the identification process is very quick. The problem lies with the Chinese authorities. They have to verify our findings and that can take time.''