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SCMP Reporter

VIETNAMESE boat people who do not receive firm responses to their applications to volunteer for repatriation may be released after three months under an international agreement between Vietnam and the United Nations.

  The Memorandum of Understanding signed in 1988 by Vietnam and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) requires Vietnam to state whether it will accept a person for repatriation within three months of the application being made.

  It is understood that this time frame is being considered by the Hong Kong Government as a parameter for determining the point at which someone can be considered as being under illegal detention.

  Last week, 125 Vietnamese people were released in the face of a court challenge which Refugee Co-ordinator Brian Bresnihan admitted would almost certainly have been lost by the Government.

  The group of 125 included people who had unsuccessfully attempted to be repatriated on several occasions over the past 61/2 years.

  The Government has refused to comment directly on the issue and would neither confirm nor deny that it would employ a three-month rule as a guide to releasing people.

  'The circumstances of each case must be examined to determine whether or not detention continues to be lawful,' a spokesman said.

   The unprecedented release of the 125 was a move aimed at slowing the push by Refugee Concern to lodge a writ of habeas corpus which would have resulted in a ruling on the legality of detaining people after they had been refused in their applications.

  Since the release, China has spoken out strongly on the issue stating that it would not accept Vietnamese boat people being released indefinitely into the community.

  The issue may still be addressed in Sino-British talks.

  The Government has been unable to identify exactly how many people could be rejected by Vietnam and thus be viewed as illegal detainees.

  In a bid to overcome the problem, Britain's Ambassador to Vietnam, Peter Williams, has become personally involved in talks with Vietnamese Foreign Ministry officials in Hanoi.

  The 125 people are illegal immigrants and are being housed at the Pillar Point Refugee Centre, an open camp.

  Refugee Concern has claimed that about another 300 people are being illegally detained.

  More than 100 of that group are believed to be viewed by Vietnam as non-nationals because of their links with Taiwan. Some in the group fled to Vietnam when the Chinese Communists ousted the Kuomintang.

  A Government spokesman confirmed yesterday that individual cases had been raised with Taiwan in the past in the 'rare circumstances where it was considered that a Vietnamese migrant had a claim on Taiwan. This practice will continue.'   The Government refused to say whether Taiwan had agreed to accept any of the cases.

  Meanwhile, a group of about 70 Vietnamese will be deported to Hanoi today under the Government's Orderly Repatriation Programme.



IIs stand to be released if bid to return fails