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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.1
2 June 1975
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From the Minister of State
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Joan
Sun Frederic,
Jim Callaghan has asked me to thank you for your letter of 24 May and to reply to it on his behalf.
The position regarding Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong is that the Colony has given temporary accommodation in special reception centres to nearly 4,000 refugees, and is providing them with medical attention and other essential services. I think that the Hong Kong Government deserve high praise for their handling of this emergency. But, with its own demographic and social problems, the Colony cannot be expected to assume the burden of supporting these refugees permanently, particularly in view of the continuing necessity to accept upwards of 30,000 immigrants every year from China. As it is, very few of the Vietnamese refugees wish to remain in Hong Kong and every effort is being made to find new homes for them. Some twenty governments are considering approaches which we and the Hong Kong Government have made to them about resettlement of the refugees. Meanwhile, Her Majesty's Government has initially made available up to £20,000 to help Hong Kong care for the Vietnamese refugees while they are in transit in Hong Kong.
Sir Frederic Bennett P
House of Commons
SW1
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