Hong Kong ends boat people policy

The government in Hong Kong has announced an end to a policy which allowed thousands of Vietnamese to remain in the territory while their claims for political asylum were assessed.

The policy, known as the port of first asylum, was introduced nearly twenty years ago in response to an influx of refugees, who became known as the boat people.

More than sixty-thousand arrived at the height of the Vietnamese crisis in 1979.

Most have now been repatriated or resettled in other countries, but about three-thousand remain in Hong Kong.

A BBC correspondent there says the government has been under pressure to end the policy.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service