mmitment should be given and that cases should be
In 14 Fco considered on their merits. Phe Lordt
ས་་ ་
Seal
birining that Ministers would need to consider the matter
We carefully, perhaps in OD, if there is any question of going beyond this decision.
3. "In practice we must accept that some refugees rescued at sea will come to Britain, but there are good grounds for maintaining our present policy of seeking to offload them elsewhere, provided we can give the GCBS sufficient reassurance that each case will be considered quickly and sympathetically.
..
4. First we still need to help Hong Kong to the greatest extent possible, not just because refugees are still arriving there but also because of the relatively poor response from other countries to appeals to them to make 'fair provision for Hong Kong
Second we in their quotas of refugee acceptances.
need to get the principle of first asylum working again: and judging by the willingness of the Chinese Government to take the Rudd Bank refugees there is no
cause to abandon hole on this. (Incidentally the
Bank Line has been careful in the Rudd Bank case not
to press us for the overall guarantee.) Thirdly our ability to persuade the Hong Kong Government to accept further refugees for settlement will be impaired to the extent that we are seen to be falling short of the promise to take 10,000 refugees from their camps.
1
5. For all these reasons the band Prty Seal thinks that it would be very difficult to go further at this stage in replying to GCBS than the line suggested in
2
/the