Mr Leahy
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 240 ST
RATHVLS
INDEX
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8 MAR 1979
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REGISTRY
cc Sir A Parsons
Ta-et
Mr Cortazzi
457
Mr Simpson-Orlebar Mr Simons'
Mr McLarenv
Mr Shepherd
FCO PAPER FOR OCR ON THE INDO-CHINA REFUGEE PROBLEM
1.
Mr colliqfur 203
I think Mr Simpson-Orlebar is to be commended on a very good first draft, However, I have the following suggestions.
2. I think the earlier part of the paper, eg in paragraphs 3 and 7, should emphasise more strongly that a new dimension has been added to the problem by the appearance of large specially- chartered refugee ships. It is this that causes additional alarm in the receiving countries of the region, among them Hong Kong. I think it should also point out more emphatically the involvement of the Vietnamese Government, which is now irrefutable, and the paper might attach as annex one or two of the latest Hong Kong telegrams Summarising the information provided by refugee interrogation in Hong Kong, and should also put on record the occasions when we have reproved the Vietnamese Government (through the Ambassador in London) and what was said.
3. It should also be recorded in the same context that, despite Vietnamese assurances that they will collaborate with the UNHCR to ensure orderly departures of the refugees, there is no evidence that this is happening.
4. A small point: it would be wise to add some qualification in paragraph 4 to the suggestion that there are 150,000 Cambodian refugees in Vietnam. This may be true and in any case the UNHCR has listed this as one of the problems in the South-East Asian region, but I do not know whether there has been any independent verification of the figures (as there has been in free countries), whether they could really be classed as refugees and whether the changed circumstances alters the situation.
5. Finally, I think that the section of the paper headed "Efforts already made by the International Community to assist" should also contain a paragraph showing the flat refusal of many countries to do anything meaningful or indeed anything at all to accept refugees. Japan must head the list, but a number of South American countries have produced marvellous excuses for doing nothing, or very little, as our recent circular letter to find homes for refugees from Hong Kong revealed. The attitude of sparsely-populated European countries, eg Sweden, is not good either. The purpose of this paragraph would be to show that, compared with a few countries, the rest of the world is relatively indifferent. Personally, I think the behaviour of the USA and France (the latter despite its pieds noirs influx) is outstandingly generous.
CONFIDENTIAL
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