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enter 708 H K GD
Mr Murray
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES:
SIBONGA
HKK243
RECEIVED IN
2
BORN MO. 51 MAY 1973
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
1. I spoke on the telephone this morning to Mr Davies, the Secretary for Security in Hong Kong. I said that Ministers were now considering the Governor's request for an undertaking about the resettlement of
the Sibonga refugees in the UK. They were aware that the matter was urgent but I could not guarantee that we would have an answer by the deadline mentioned in Hong Kong telegram No 613 (effectively close of play tonight). If the Hong Kong Government decided to allow the Sibonga to enter Hong Kong before we had given a reply to the Governor's request, it would be on their own responsibility.
2. Mr Davies said the Sibonga had already been told to anchor outside Hong Kong waters on arrival late this evening. Investigation of the circumstances in which the refugees were rescued would take up much of tomorrow. If it were clear, as now seemed likely, that the rescue was genuine, the ship would be moved to an anchorage inside Hong Kong waters. The Hong Kong Government would then have to decide what to do about the refugees.
3. Mr Davies said that the refugees would probably have to remain on board the Sibonga for several days at least. This was because
there was no accommodation for them on land. There were now 32,000 refugees from Viet Nam in Hong Kong, 1,300 having arrived in small boats inthe past two days. 2,000 of them were being kept on the small boats in which they had arrived. There was at present nowhere else for them
to go.
4.
4.
Mr Davies added that, accommodation problems apart, there was another argument in favour of keeping the refugees on board the Sibonga for the time being. The Hong Kong Government had received intelligence from Vung Tau that there were two ships there waiting to load refugees, and that the owners were waiting to see how the Hong Kong Government handled the Sibonga. I said that there was surely a distinction
between ships which picked up refugees from sinking boats at sea and those which engaged in the refugee traffic. The distinction would be underlined if the Sibonga refugees (assuming their rescue was genuine), were allowed to land, while those brought by the Skyluck in February were still kept on board. Mr Davies agreed.
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