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RECEIVED IN ROS.STAT
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MEETING ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PROCESSING @MÁY1929 FOR INDO-CHINA REFUGEES
STATEMENT BY THE BRITISH DELEGATE
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1.
On behalf of the British Government may I express my gratitude to the Indonesian Government for convening this meeting and for circulating a very helpful background paper, which sets out clearly the parameters of the problem we are now considering. The Indonesian paper draws attention to the fact that "the problem is no longer an ASEAN one, but has become a world-wide problem". My Government welcomes any viable proposal that offers even a partial solution to that problem.
2. As is well known, Britain has many other obligations for accepting immigrants from South Asia, the Caribbean and East Africa (to mention only the main areas of emigration). Britain's ability to absorb significant numbers of refugees from elsewhere is therefore limited.
3. In addition to its obligations elsewhere, Britain has a special concern for the growing turden of refugees from Indo-China in Hong Kong. These are on top of a very high rate of immigration from China with some 180,000 arrivals, both legal and illegal, in the past 16 months. These people have all been absorbed into Hong Kong, as have been, since 1975, some 12,000 former residents of the countries of Indo-China. It is against this background that Britain must look at the burden of the
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