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HKK 243/1
CONFIDENTIAL
27 January 1978
Dr D C Wilson
Political Adviser Government Secretariat
HONG KONG
HKK 2+3/1
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No hi
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VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
1.
Thank you for your letter CR2/4821/75III of 15 December. We found it very useful to have an up-to-date picture.
2.
I agree that it is too early to be certain that the major exodus from Vietnam is really over. I also take your point about the BBC coverage and these have been passed on. I enclose a copy of the BBC's reply which I hope you will agree is satisfactory. We would expect to have a chance to talk to Matthew Salisbury before his visit.
3. The current position in the UK is that the "quota" agreed after the "Clara Maersk" incident has now been exhausted. We have accepted about 400 Vietnamese refugees within a total of some 600 from the whole of Indo-China. The Home Office are at present considering what our next step should be. Current thinking, although this has not yet gone to the Ministers, is that we should agree to accept, for resettlement procedures to be pursued, any refugees picked up by a British registered ship when the refugees cannot be put ashore (without guarantees being given as to their final resettlement) at the ship's first port of call following the rescue. There remains the problem of defining "British registered" and it is too early to say for certain whether the term would include vessels registered in Hong Kong; but at worst this ought to be possible in difficult cases.
4. In preliminary discussions on your suggestion that the UK should take a special batch of, say, 50 refugees, the Home Office have shown quite a lot of sympathy for the idea. We have now written to the Home Office to follow this up and will keep you in touch with developments.
CONFIDENTI AL
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