Resettlement
CONFIDENTIAL
- 3-
DSR 11C
D
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need
we may to intervene
if he proposes a formula which would
exclude any
those in
ว Hay Kang.
6
We do not intend to answer all the questions in the Your department on 31 January UNHCR informal working paper (which we copied to you ourlier):
there have, in any case, been further developments since the
paper was issued, particularly the current visit of the
Deputy UNHCR to Hanoi and to some ASEAN countries about which
we should be receiving reports in due course (the first of
these is in Bangkok telno 16 enclosed). We shall avoid
at this shaped
7
through
commenting on which classes of refugees should be allowed to go
to the island, leaving this to the UNICR to sort out -
With regard to the call by ASEAN states for blanket
resettlement guarantees for all who may go to the island, we
should like to be able to say, subject to your concurrence,
that the UK would, with other countries, agree to consider
admitting to Britain a small quota of refugees from the island as part of any extra commitment to be shared by the inter- national community. I realise that any eventual decision on
further admissions of Indo-Chinese refugees to Britain, beyond
what we are doing at present, will require collective
ministerial consultation in advance, but I hope you could
agree, at this stage, to our using the formula I have proposed.
We do not dispute that any British association, however limited,
with the island proposal is likely, in the longer term at any
rate, to increase the pressure on us to admit further groups
of refugees. I think we must all accept this as a fact of
life, though we should naturally wish to keep any admissions
in future to an absolute minimum, if possible linking them
to refugees who had reached the island from particular
territories such as Hong Kong, Malaysia or Thailand.
CONFIDENTIAL
/Finance
Dď 0532000 400 M 5178 HMSO Brackne!!