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3. Hong Kong
De Haan spoke favourably of his discussions and commended Hong Kong for its handling of the situation. On the question of Vietnamese refugees from China. UNHCR were prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt so long as it did not precipitate a flow of the 200,000 refugees already in China. These cases would have to be looked at individually but the guidelines would be flexible. De Haan had talked to a group from the Sky Luck and found them generally in good spirits, but felt that as space became available in Hong Kong they would have to be progressively disembarked. The Ambassador enquired whether UNHCR had set a limit to the number of refugees that they could support in Hong Kong at any one time (Neil Patterson asked me last week to raise this point as HK & GD had heard that a figure of 2,000 had been set). De Haan knew nothing about this and as far as he was concerned there was money available and UNHCR would continue to take all refugees for whom they had responsibility. Keith MacInnes asked Cuenod, who accompanied De Haan, about this figure and Cuenod said that the 2,000 referred to the number for whom accommodation was being planned in some new camp being set up near the detention camp: UNHCR were optimistic that a larger figure need not be anticipated, but if their optimism proved unfounded they would naturally arrange for more accommodation. De Haan acknowledged that Hong Kong was the most affected area in the region, but added that resettlement was increasing, in particular to the US. UNHCR would try to do something to persuade Macau to take more.
4.
Special Processing Centre
The High Commissioner and De Haan had seen the Indonesian Foreign Minister (Mochtar) on 27 March and I onclose a press reless issued by UNHCR about the discussions. Mochtar has now gone on to Washington to talk to Vance. De Haan was struck by the lack of a common approach in ASEAN for each government seemed to have different views, and even within governments, of what they expected from the project. Mochtar still wondered about its viability and talked only in terms of 5-10,000. Pulua Rempang, an island where there are already some refugees, 2 hours by sea from Singapore, had been offered and UNHCR invited to send a feasibility team. UNICR made it clear that they would not provide the infrastructure (landing strips, roads etc) and that this would have to be obtained bilaterally by Indonesia from perhaps Japan or the US. De Haan seemed now to be regarding the project on a stand-by basis which would not be needed if the increase in resettlement continued and the number of boat cases continued to decrease. He readily agreed with the Ambassador's description that it was still at an "amorphous stage". The High Commissioner would decide when it was appropriate to send the team possibly later next month.
5. Cambodian Refugees
The Ambassador also took the opportunity of raising the question of Cambodia refugees in Vietnam. De Haan believed that this was one problem that could possibly be solved this year. UNHCR would be undertaking a survey, but it was already evident that i of the refugees wanted to stay, others to return, and others to go on to France and the US. He expected that there might be a
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