CONFIDENTIAL
File Ref.: CR 11/4821/79
With HKK 21
NOTES OF A MEETING HELD BETWEEN THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT AND AMBASSADOR D. CLARK, THE UNITED STATES REFUGEE CO-ORDINATOR ON 26th APRIL 1979 IN THE GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT, HONG KONG AT 0915 HOURS
243/1
AVE
VRPPS/
Present: The United States Delegate
Ambassador D. Clark, U.S. Refugee Co-ordinator Mr. D. Carpenter, Staff Member/Ambassador Clark's
Office
Mr. A. Loewi, Staff Member/Ambassador Clark's Office Mr. J. Friedman, Bureau of East Asian Affairs,
Department of State
Mr. M. Davis, Staff Secretariat, Department of State Mr. J. Sureck, District Director, U.S. Immigration
and Naturalization Service, Hong Kong
Mr. E. Kreuser, Chief, Consular Section, U.S. Consulate Ms. P. Wazer, Refugee Officer, U.S. Consulate
The Hong Kong Government
Sir Jack Cater, Chief Secretary
Mr. L.M. Davies, Secretary for Security
Dr. D.C. Wilson, Political Adviser
Mr. J.D. Slimming, Director of Information Services
Mr. M.C. Morgan, Deputy Secretary for Security
Mr. I.C. Orr, Assistant Political Adviser
Secretary Mr. Fred Ting, Principal Assistant
Secretary for Security
Sir Jack welcomed Ambassador Clark and his party to Hong Kong. He said that the problem of Vietnamese refugees was a very serious and intractable one, and he invited Mr. Davies to elaborate on it.
2.
Mr. Davies said that up to November 1978, the situation - regarding Vietnamese refugees was being contained. Despite the fact that Hong Kong had accepted 15,000 Vietnamese as permanent residents, a new situation began to develop in December. The influx had been increasing rapidly since then. There were now about 21,000 Vietnamese refugees here, compared with 5,400 at the end of 1978. Some 15,000 of them arrived in small boats, including 100 boat-loads of refugees towed away from Macau, and 6,000 arrived in big boats. The total number of people resettled in third countries was only 2,840 so far this year, and the influx was seven times higher than the outflow. With the south-westerly wind during the summer months, the influx of Vietnamese refugees during the next four or five months was likely to be 10,000 per month.
As/
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