being permitted to land temporarily and there is good co-operation between the Hong Kong authorities/UNHCR/ICEN. Of the 406 "boat people" currently in Hong Kong some 200 have no immediate prospect
of resettlement in other countries.
4. A request was made to the Home Office on 20 January to accept a further batch of, perhaps, 50 "boat people". No decision on this has yet been reached because the Home Secretary has been considering the wider question of the UK's policy towards accepting "boat people". We originally laid down a quota of 116 "boat people" which has now been filled, indeed exceeded. The Home Office have just informed us that the Home Secretary has now decided that in future the UK will accept any refugee picked up by a UK-registered vessel and taken to the vessel's scheduled next port of call, who is not accepted for resettlement by any other country. The Home Secretary is not giving this guarantee in respect of other British, i.e. dependent territory, vessels but he is expected to give sympathetic consideration to such cases. This decision has not yet been made public.
5. Since the original request was made Mr Luard has written on 7 March to Dr Summerskill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Home Office, confirming our belief in the need for an additional 'quota' to help Hong Kong.
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