Registry
No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret,
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
DRAFT
To:-
Bryan Cartledge Esq
10 Downing Street
Type 1 +
From
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
DSR 11
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES: ROACHBANK
We have been considering how a decision to accept the
293 refugees on board the mv ROACHBANK for resettlement in this country might be put into effect.
1.
2. We understand that the Home Office have had some
preliminary discussions with the voluntary refugee
organisations and would be able to make suitable reception
arrangements with a few days' notice. The simplest way to bring the refugees to the UK would be to fly them here
direct from Taiwan. The Bank Line, who have been in touch
with the Taiwanese authorities through their local agents,
are confident that the refugees would be permitted to land
for this purpose. As in the case of the WELLPARK refugees
last October, the actual arrangements would be made through
the Intergovenmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM),
a member of whose Hong Kong staff would go to Taipei. The
travel costs would be borne by the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees.
3.
A theoretical alternative would be to ask the Bank
Line to instruct the ROACHBANK's Master to sail with the
refugees to Hong Kong and arrange onward transport there.
But the Hong Kong Government would be extremely reluctant
to agree to this, because of the precedent which would be
set, and there would be no advantage from our point of
view unless the refugees could be landed in Hong Kong
while resettlement possibilities in other countries were
explored. That is not something we could reasonably ask
of the Hong Kong Government, who already have over 6,000
refugees waiting in boats in Hong Kong Harbour, in
addition to the 35,000 in camps on land.
/4.
Dd 0532000 800M 5/78 HMSO Bracknell