J
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
Telephone 01- 233-5197
CONFIDENTIAL
M Haworth Esq
DS 5
Ministry of Defence
Main Building
Whitehall
London SW1
HKK 243/1
RECEIVED IN BEGISTRY KO. 51
20 SEP 1978
DESK OFFICER
REG- RY
INDEX
PA
Action Ten
Your reference
Our reference
Date
PA
20 September 1978
190
No
لله
CHE
DEPLOYMENT OF HONG KONG SQUADRON: VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
1. You told me yesterday that the Commander of the Hong Kong Squadron had sough your advice about the procedures he should follow if the ships of the Squadro.. which are due to visit Singapore, Penang, Jakarta and Brunei next month, pick up Vietnamese refugees on the high seas.
2. I can confirm, first of all, that it is absolutely right for RN ships to take on board refugees whose own craft are in danger of foundering. The ship's Cap. 2. should report any such rescue to CINGFLEET, DS 5, the FCO and our Diplomatic Post. in countries where he might have to put the refugees ashore.
3.
HMG's policy with regard to these Vietnamese refugees is that in any case WI a UK reigstered vessel (and I assume that the vessels of the Hong Kong Squadron., part of the RN, count as UK registered vessels) has difficulty in offloading refugee: rescued on the high seas, the British Government will offer a guarantee that uncy will be brought to the UK if they are not otherwise resettled elsewhere within tar... months. (The cost of transport is met by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.) Hitherto our guarantees have never been rejected. The guarantees are proviaeu the British Embassy or High Commission concerned after consultation with the Fu. It is thus important that the FCO and our Posts be informed about any rescue as soon as possible.
4. We think that other countries ought to accept refugees without such guara..Ge so you may find that we would ask the Hong Kong Squadron to try and set them asnon- without one. But in practice most countries in South East Asia are less than enthusiastic about accepting Vietnamese. You could tell CAPIC that in our recent experience the Government of Singapore is particularly sticky.. The Malaysians been more flexible in the past but now feel that their comparatively humane approch has been exploited. Neither Indonesia nor Brunei should make too much difficulty about accepting refugees provided we offer HMG's guarantee to accept final responsibility.
5. The normal procedure when refugees are picked up would be for the ship concerned to proceed as planned to its next destination. There could be a difficulty about. diverting to the nearest port (countries do not like to feel that they are being singled out for a consignment of refugees). It will therefore be important for o . Posts to explain to Governments to which they are accredited that the ships of the Hong Kong Squadron are very small and that their own safety and stability are at risk if they take on board any substantial number of unexpected passengers.
CONFIDENT IAL
16.