RESTRICTED
A
C
OA W
D
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F
Mr Weir PS/Mr Luard
HKK 243//
PA
Theer was
23
agreed
HOCK
M.T
REFUGEES IN INDO-CHINA No
Problem
with me
063/3
1. Miss Evans has asked for an early submission, with draft letters to Mis Derian of the State Department and to Dr Summerskill at the Home Office, on the subject of Indo-Chinese refugees.
Background
2. On 15 February, at a meeting at the State Department, Ms Derian asked Mr Luard if the UK could accept more "boat refugees".
Mir Luard undertook to report the request and to reply in due course.
3. Ms Derian had earlier written to the Secretary of State on this subject on 23 December and Mr Luard replied on the Secretary of State's behalf on 10 January. Ms Derian wrote again on 2 February. Mr Beattie's submission of 6 January gave details of earlier American
approaches to us.
4.
The Home Office have been considering what the UK's policy should be towards accepting "boat refugees". We have encouraged them to be as forthcoming as possible and have asked that they consider accepting a group of 50 Vietnamese "boat refugees" from Hong Kong. Hong Kong currently have 406 "boat refugees", of whom about 200 are unlikely to be offered resettlement places in the
near future.
5. The Home Office have told us unofficially that the Home Secretary has decided to admit to the UK any refugee rescued at sea by a UK-registered vessel who is not accepted for resettlement
by any other country. This decision was taken in the hope that it
would:
(a)
(b)
remove the burden, and therefore the possibility that ships will avoid rescuing refugees, from the shoulders
of ships' masters who rescue refugees and who cannot put them ashore;
relieve those refugees rescued at sea of their own immediate anxiety and insecurity; and
/(c) contribute