CONFIDENTIAL
B
4.
Some countries in the region, such as Taiwan, Brunei and Singapore, have consistently maintained a hard line towards these refugees. The refugees have given them a miss whenever they could, preferring to head for those territories which have shown a more humanitarian attitude towards their plight, such as Malaysia,
Thailand and Hong Kong. These latter territories have become
saturated.
5. In the absence of sufficient resettlement offers from third countries, not only to mop up the numbers now awaiting resettlement but also to cope with the new arrivals, ASEAN countries (and the Government of Hong Kong) have supported the idea of establishing an island processing centre. Indonesia may offer one of its islands (an uninhabited one) for this purpose provided certain conditions are met, the chief of which has been (though see para 9(c) that there should be firm guarantees from the major countries of resettlement that within a certain time-scale (unspecified) all - refugees arriving on the island would be permanently resettled
elsewhere.
6.
The UNHCR's paper has been passed to interested governments
on a confidential basis for their views. This poses major questions of immediate relevance, which need to be answered before a more thorough investigation of the proposal can be got underway. Mean- while, UND (in consultation with SEAD and HK&GD) has given guidance to HM Ambassador, Manila for his expected discussion with the Philippines Foreign Minister (FCO tel No 44 to Manila): Mr Cortazzi considers this 'too negative'.
7. I have consulted the Home Office and ODM about the proposal and the UNHCR paper. Their views have been incorporated into this
submission.
Argument
8. We see the following arguments in favour of the setting up of and island processing centre and of public UK support for this:
CONFIDENTIAL
/(a) It