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United Kingdom and other offers
On 28 May the British Government had already declared its willingness to accept Vietnamese refugees rescued at sea by the M. V. Sibonga and taken to Hong Kong. The first among the 1,003 rescued began arriving in London on 12 June,
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On 11 June the Home Secretary announced in Parliament that refugees rescued at sea by Roachbank and not accepted at the first port of call (in Taiwan) would be brought to Britain as soon as possible. As a contribution to encouraging a wide international response to the problem, the government had earlier agreed to admit 1,500 Vietnamese refugees in addition to the 1,108 already granted entry. Of those to be admitted, 1,000 were to be drawn from Hong Kong and the remainder from Malaysia and Thailand. Of the extra 1,500 over 270 had reached Britain at the end of April. In 1978 Britain offered nearly £7 million to the UNHCR for refugees throughout the world, including over £2 million for the UNHCR special programme in South-East Asia. The United Kingdom has pledged £3.5 million to the general purpose budget for 1979. But Britain has commitments to accept families of Commonwealth immigrants, already in the United Kingdom, and British passport holders from East Africa. In undertaking to accept Vietnamese rescued from the Sibonga, the British Government made clear that it could not make a general commitment about similar action in future.
The United States, which has already authorised entry for 25,000 Indochinese refugees since June 1978, has agreed to admit a further 21,875 in the near future. It plans to admit about 7,000 Indochinese refugees a month until September 1980, Altogether the US has taken more than 190,000 people from Indochina since April 1975. Under-Secretary of State David Newsom, speaking at the UNHCR meeting in Geneva in December 1978, said that the US Government's readiness to give asylum to more people over the next year could depend on how generously the rest of the world granted them refuge. The US Government has appointed Ambassador Dick Clark, of the State Department, as Co-ordinator for Refugee Affairs.
The Australian Government has so far accepted some 16,000 Vietnamese for permanent resettlement and the figure is expected to rise to 21,500 by June 1979. A further 10,500 will be received between June 1979 and June 1980. The Australian Government, however, has also stressed the need for other countries to make a greater contribution, France has accepted 49,000 refugees, the Federal Republic of Germany 3,500, Switzerland 1,500 and the Netherlands 380. According to the UNHCR, total acceptances by 1 May amounted to-553,000. Many more countries must make offers.