CONFIDENTIAL
ECRETARY OF STATE'S VISIT TO HONG KONG, KUALA LUMPUR, DELHI AND
BAGHDAD: JUNE/JULY 1979
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
ESSENTIAL FACTS
Numbers Involved
1. About 350,000 are awaiting resettlement; of these over 200,000
(mainly Laotians and Cambodians) are in Thailand. 80,000 Vietnamese
are in Malaysia, 55,000 in Hong Kong and 26,000 in Indonesia.
Perhaps 3,000 Vietnamese a day may now be leaving Vietnam, of whom
over half perish at sea.
Vietnamese each for settlement.
2. The Americans and Chinese have already accepted over 230,000
The French have taken 51,500, the
Canadians 15,000 and Hong Kong 11,000. The United Kingdom had
accepted 1,573 by 22 May and 350 other Indo-Chinese.
3.
The Government have accepted over 1,000 from the mv Sibonga (to
be offset as far as possible against the unused part of a quota of
1,500 agreed by the previous Government).
Refugees from the
We
·
my Roachbank will be accepted, whom the Taiwanese do not
also expect to take 6 from the mv Norse Viking. The Government made
clear when announcing the decision over the mv Sibonga that future
ships' cases would be considered on their merits.
The Prime Minister's Proposal for a Conference
4.
On
The Americans and the French have supported our proposal.
18 June, in a declaration, the Foreign Ministers of the Nine also
called for a conference. Dr Waldheim's initial reaction was positive
and he appears to be moving towards convening a conference over which
he might be prepared to preside. The UNHCR was initially Luke-warm;
he is now seeking advance pledges of resettlement places and money.
If he receives a measure of satisfaction he is likely to come round
CONFIDENTIAL
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