C.
1062)
THE PRIME MINISTER
Rea
10 DOWNING STREET
Hkk 243d
RESELLE
George no
22.0
PS/LPS
PalMR. BLARER
PS) Pus Sin A Dust
MR. CERTAZZ
PR. MunnTRY
RED
HRAGO
(ง)
11 June 1979
Thank you for your letter of 1 June about the problems of
providing accommodation for the Vietnamese boat people after their initial reception into this country.
You are right in thinking that there will be problems in
finding sufficient local authority accommodation for settlement after the six months or so these people will need in the reception
centres. Your offer of help, therefore, is particularly timely and
I warmly welcome it.
Willie Whitelaw is co-ordinating the arrangements for receiving these refugees. Immediate operational responsibility, however,
is being undertaken by the main voluntary refugee organisations
specifically, the British Council for Aid to Refugees, the Ockenden
Venture and Save the Children including negotiations with local
authorities which have offered long-term accommodation and the
transfer of the refugees from reception centres to their permanent
homes. The position is also complicated by the existence of other Vietnamese refugees who are already here or due to arrive here shortly and who will be equally in need of long-term accommodation. Translating your prompt and generous offer into action on the
ground therefore, may need careful handling, particularly in view of
the sensitivities to which you draw attention.
One option may be for you to make the accommodation available
to the Vietnamese refugees in this country generally (ie not just those from the MV Sibonga) and to discuss direct with the refugee organisations the numbers and locations in which they would be provided. Home Office officials will be writing very shortly to the
/local authority