UNCLASSIFIED
P Morgan Esq
UND
FCO
United Kingdom Mission 37-39 rue de Vermont 1211 Geneva 20
Telex 22956 Telegrams Prodrome Geneva Telephone 34 38 00 33 23 65
HKK 243/1.
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY 173. 51
5 DEC 1978
DESK OF
Your reference
Our reference
Date
Fi
RY
PA
UN 618/2
325
1 December 1978
INDER
*ction Ten
CLE
UNHCR CONSULTATIONS ON INDO CHINESE REFUGEES: 11/12 DECEMBER
324
1. Please refer to my letter of 30 November. I subsequently accommpanied the Ambassador on a call he made on the High Commissioner to discuss, amongst other things, the consultations. Mr Hartling was insistent that we were to have consultations, not a UN-style conference. The difference was important because it enabled UNHCR to invite whom they wanted, to chair the meeting themselves, and to dispense with a bureau, elections, decisions, resolutions and texts. The chairman will be Dale de Haan, the Deputy High Commissioner this leaves the High Commissioner free to float his own draft report which would simply summarise objectively the proceedings and, the High Commissioner hopes, would endorse the suggestions put forward in his Note.
2.
and
Mr Hartling also hoped that governments would announce quotas (a sort of "pledging conference") which would enable him to press the Vietnamese to control the outflow of refugees. One idea was the setting up of an emmigration bureau in Hanoi which would process applicants against quotas pledged. Quotas are, of course, intended to be over and above the number of refugees picked up by our ships and brought to the UK against a resettlement guarantee. Incidentially, the High Commissioner thought it unlikely that the Vietnamese would attend, but if they did so it would be at Mission level.
3. The High Commissioner emphasised that these consultations would deal with the problems of refugees throughout the area, not just boat cases. He added that at the General Assembly the Africans had manifested considerable irritation at the concentration on the Indo Chinese situation which, in terms of numbers, was very much smaller than Africa's 4-5 million refugees. Homann-Herimberg returns this week from a tour of the region and should be bringing back some fresh ideas.
ccs: R J Edis Esq UKMIS NEW YORK
J Davidson Esq Chancery WASHINGTON
I Orr Esq HONG KONG
HKGD
SEAD MVD
DR Snoxell