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[Lord Trefgarne.]
[LORDS]
Copies of my noble friend's speech, and of the final statements by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Dr. Waldheim are being placed in the Library of the House.
3.16 p.m.
Lord BROCKWAY: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that very full Statement. Is he aware that, despite political differences, he would wish to express appreciation of the Prime Minister in initiating this conference which has had such valuable results? Is it not the case that Dr. Waldheim, the United Nations Secretary-General in effect saved this conference when it was in danger of political controversy, and has not the status of the United Nations been greatly enhanced by the service which he and the Commissioner for Refugees gave to the conference? Is the noble Lord aware that we desire to express our tribute to the island of the Philippines and to Indonesia for providing transit accommodation to the refugees, and particularly to Hong Kong which has in a humanitarian way received the refugees at a cost of £13 million year? Will the Government be making some contribution to Hong Kong to meet that cost?
Lord AVEBURY: My Lords, may we associate ourselves with the tribute which has been paid by the noble Lord, Lord Brockway, to those responsible for setting this conference on foot, and particularly to the noble Lord, the Foreign Secretary, who played such a significant and im- portant role in ensuring that the outcome is as successful as it has been? Would the noble Lord consider publishing a table showing commitments already under- taken by various nations prior to the conference, and those now entered into as a result of the proceedings, both in terms of the number of refugees that they are prepared to take and the financial contri- butions towards defraying the cost of resettlement?
Would the noble Lord confirm that the net emigration over immigration in the United Kingdom over the past eight years has averaged 37,500 and therefore to put the 10,000 refugees that we have agreed to accept in context, they represent sewer than one quarter of the outflow from this country in a typical year. Therefore there, is no danger that the acceptance by the
to
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United Kingdom of this number of refugees will make the slightest diflorence the domestic composition of the population. In view of the success of this Conference, would Her Majesty Govern- ment take the initiative in convening similar exercises where refufce problems arise in other parts of the world, parti- cularly in the Horn of Africa, to which attention was drawn by Professor Richard Greenfield in a recent letter to the Guardian,
Lord TREFGARNE: My Lords, I am obliged to both 'noble Lords for what they have said. I think that the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, somewhat over- simplifies the problems in accepting a large number of refugees in this country from the Far East or from anywhere else. We have offered, as the noble Lord will know, and as my noble friend confirmed in Geneva, to accept 10,000 additional refugees, and the process of accepting those is now going ahead. The noble Lord, Lord Brockway, referred to the pecial position of Hong Kong in this matter. Hong Kong will certainly benefit from the Geneva Conference in two ways: the reduction in outflow from Vietnam and from the speedier resettlement of no fewer than 66,000 refugees who now find themselves there. As the Governor emphasised in his speech, there is a clear need for Hong Kong to be given morg resettlement places. This has been fully recognised by the United Nations ligh Commissioner for Refugees and others concerned.
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Baroness VICKERS: My Lords, may ask the noble Lord whether, in view of the fact that one of the saddest aspects of this problem is the divided families, and especially the orphaned children, any machinery is being set up to try to trace relations?
Lord TREFGARNE: My Lords, the re-uniting of divided families was one of the earliest matters to which the Vietnamese Government agreed with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees -I think it was as far back as May.
My
Lord GORONWY-ROBERTS: Lords, may I ask the Minister whether he is aware that we on this side of the House join wholeheartedly with my noble
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