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Reference..
1158A)
HKK 243/1 N Willingdon
Mr Flower SEAD
RECEIVES
2 SJUM
DESK0.PICAR
KIDEK
8124/6 J21.6
PA
No
72.2.6
W
1132
1
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES:
BRITISH SHIPPING CO. LOSSES
1. You have received a copy of Mr Graham's (Dept of Trade) letter to me of 18 June.
2. It would be inappropriate, for the following reasons, for the British government to ask the UNHCR for reimbursement of expenses incurred by British shipping companies whose vessels rescue Vietnamese refugees:
a)
b)
c)
The UNHCR is already desperately short of funds to maintain his commitment to assist refugees in camps in South East Asia. Looking at the requirements up to the end of 1979, the UNHCR has a deficit of US$ 67 million (assuming numbers remain at their present level which they won't);
When on
The UNHCR has never accepted responsibility for refugees until they have been landed and there is no prospect that he will do so. board ship, refugees (or any other survivor rescued at sea) are the responsibility of the master of the vessel. It follows that expenses incurred as a result are also his, or by extension his company's, responsibility;
The UNHCR meets the cost of air-fares of Vietnamese refugees brought to the UK. Although HK&GD will be able to comment on the arrangements for the Sibonga group, ICEM (acting as agent for UNHCR) normally makes the bookings and pays the cost in the first instance: they have a revolving fund for refugee air-fares which the UNHCR tops up as appropriate. Refugees transported in this way are expected to repay the costs involved though in practice I believe few can or do. Britain is one of the few countries which expect the UNHCR to defray the cost of passages to the UK despite the heavy strain this places on the High Commissioner's slim financial resources. The US and French governments meet the travel costs of refugees going to their territories.
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