CONFIDENTIAL
-2-
Good.
be met. We are putting such a proposal to the local representative, on the basis that Hong Kong provides the land and the overheads in connection with planning, designing, etc. the camp but that UNHCR meets the capital cost. We shall also press for the cost of management to be reimbursed to the Government if we provide it or for UNHCR to provide management. We think it is probable that if the numbers go on increasing we should undertake the management or else maintain a strong presence within it to see it is effective. We also commented that we thought the UNHCR office here should be strengthened. We gathered UNHCR already have this in hand.
6. We got an undertaking regarding boat people from North Vietnam who have reached Hong Kong after making short stops in China. We shall be presenting further cases to the UNHCR locally in a steady stream and believe that they will accept all this group eventually. Obviously their resettlement will present a problem.
7.
De Haan said that Dr. Mochtar, the Indonesian Foreign Minister, would be convening a meeting, probably in Indonesia, in March/April and would be going to Geneva to discuss the ASEAN scheme. So far it seems that no unanimous view has emerged from the ASEAN countries as to which refugees might go to the transit centre or how the scheme would be implemented. We were told by De Haan that the intention was that the camp would be administered by UNHCR and got an assurance from him, which he repeated at his Press Conference, that Hong Kong would not be excluded from it. This was reassuring. Our assessment is that UNHCR is playing a waiting game over this scheme to see whether ASEAN can put forward agreed proposals.
8. We touched on our desire to get agreement with Macau that they should cease to send on to Hong Kong boat refugees who arrive the re. We shall be following this up with the local UNHCR representative and also with the Macau authorities.
9.
Nothing very new emerged about refugee places though again De Haan was encouraged by the increased rate of departures throughout the region. made the point strongly that our attempts to get more offers after the Huey Fong's arrival had produced few offers. We also emphasised that only 1500 had left since the New Year, since when 12, 000 had arrived.
10.
We
The visit was very useful and has helped to clear the air to some extent on our problem with the North Vietnamese boat people and the framework within which we shall have to consider the construction of camps. It also gave us the outline of the controlled immigration scheme from Vietnam and brought us up to date on the ASEAN scheme. We shall now be following up matters with the UNHCR representative locally.
Hour
in wer.
c. c. UN Dept. FCO
UKMIS Geneva
Peking Washington
(L. M. Davies)
Secretary for Security
Hanoi
Singapore
Kuala Lumpur
Jakarta
Manila