CONFIDENTIAL
?+2
انور
C.S. 41A
BY BAG
布政司署
香港下亞畢道
本署檔號 OUR REF.:
SCR 27/65
* YOUR Ref.:
22 1:976
R B Janvrin Esq
HKIOD
[PKK 243/548/1
LASI REF
*Hong Kong
FCO
свет
Kubin,
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
1.
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
18 June 1976
Acknowledged in
leber our Magas hum fite
назал,
/vii
1
(14)
As you may have seen in the local press, 19 Vietnamese refugees arrived in Hong Kong on 10 June aboard the British* tanker 'Cree'. They were picked up by the 'Cree' on 28 May Registered off the south coast of Vietnam from a trawler, in which they
had escaped from near Saigon two day's earlier. (They have claimed that the trawler was sinking but there have been suspicions that they deliberately tried to sink the trawler in order to persuade the Master of the 'Cree' to pick them up.)
The 'Cree', which was on a routine run from Hong Kong to singapore, then took them to Singapore, where they were refused entry. The 'Cree' therefore returned to Hong Kong with
them.
2.
On arrival in Hong Kong the refugees were given permission to stay for one month on humanitarian grounds. Jardines, the owners of the 'Cree', are helping provide for them, as is International Social Service, who are co-operating with Immigration Department in trying to arrange their onward resettlement. One family, which speaks Cantonese may be accepted in Hong Kong, although their relation here cannot support them. Another family are possible emigrants to the US, but do not qualify for immediate entry. The Canadian, German, French and Australian Missions have also been approached, but without very positive results. Two of the women are heavily pregnant, and unlikely to be able to move anyway in the near future.
Cc: J F R Martin Esq
FED,
FCO
Chancery Peking Chancery Hanoi Chancery Singapore
Yours in Last
Chees
(C D S Drace-Francis)