BRITISH EMBASSY
JAKARTA
AD A Rodger Esq
SEAD
FCO
HKK_243|1
RECEIVEN
Dear Alan,
DESK 0-40
11 May. 1979
по
818.
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INDEX
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES: VISIT OF AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION MINISTER
1. The Australian Minister of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Michael MacKellar, was in Jakarta on 9 and 10 May as part of a tour of all ASEAN capitals. MacKellar had talks on the Vietnamese refugee problem with Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Harun Zain, the Head of the State Intelligence Coordinating Board General Yoga and General Panggabean, who is standing in as Foreign Minister while Mochtar is in Morocco. MacKellar also saw officials at the Department of Social Affairs, who are to be given a new role coordinating the handling of Indochina refugees temporarily accommodated in Indonesian camps.
2. Before leaving Jakarta, MacKellar announced that his government has agreed to accept at least 1,000 refugees from Indonesian camps for permanent resettlement in Australia, including 169 of the 423 Vietnamese at present accommodated in Jakarta. This undertaking will presumably form a basis for the discussions which the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, is due to have with President Suharto in Bali tomorrow, and will affect the line Australia will take at next week's Jakarta meeting on the proposed island processing centres.
cc: Chanceries, Canberra,
Hanoi,
Singapore, Bangkok,
Manila,
Kuala Lumpur
Yours ever, David
D G Roberts
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