by British vessels. The Government have made a
commitment to take ultimate responsibility for all
refugees who are rescued by vessels registered in
UK ports. You may recall the much publicised
evacuation to Britain late last year of the 346
refugees rescued by the mv "WELLPARK" There have
•
been many other rescue operations involving smaller
numbers of refugees, which have received less
publicity, and these will undoubtedly continue.
In addition to this open-ended commitment, the Home
Secretary announced in January that a further 1,500
Vietnamese refugees would be admitted to the United
Kingdom. The first groups of these have already
arrived in this country. That decision was taken in
response to appeals from the UNHCR and as part of a
wider international effort to resettle refugees.
All this means that we shall be continuing to receive
Vietnamese refugees for quite some time to come.
The British Government is one of the leading
financial contributors towards help for the refugees.
In 1977, we gave £750,000 for the UNHCR programme of
assistance for refugees in Thailand and other South-
East Asian countries, and in 1978 we pledged over
£2 million for this same programme. This was part of a
total contribution to the UNHCR of nearly £7 million.
And for 1979, we have pledged £3.5 million to the UNHCR
General Programme which now includes assistance to
refugees in Indo-China.
.//1
should also mention the
assistance the Hong Kong Government have given, and are
giving, to Vietnamese refugees and this despite the
Yexisting ::
Page 105Page 106