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rate of intake in the New Year would depend very much on the rate
of movement out of UK reception centres into resettlement housing.
The Governor was worried that movements at this rate would not be
sufficient to impress the Americans. Vice President Mondale was
due to visit Hong Kong on his return from Peking, and the
Americans had made no secret of the fact that their rate of intake
from Hong Kong would be influenced by the UK's performance. They
had undertaken to move 2,000 per month but had so far fallen well
short of that target. It would be difficult to urge them to do more unless it could be shown that the UK were making a very rapid
start to their new programme.
The Governor suggested that,
presentationally, it would be better if, instead of reducing the
intake from 700 in September to 500 in October, we could increase
it to 1,000 in October. We could then justifiably take a breathin
space in November and resume intake in December. The Governor
said that he would be writing to Mr Woodfield in this vein.
14. Apart from the political and presentational advantages to be
gained by Hong Kong from a rapid initial intake of refugees by the
UK, another point made to us during our visit is worthy of
consideration in terms of its affect on the resettlement of those
to come here. Several of the refugee camps in Hong Kong are situated in densely populated areas where organised crime is particularly active. There have been reports that attempts have been made by criminal elements in Hong Kong to lead refugees into
vice, crime and other nefarious activities. Some refugees have
reported that they have been asked to carry drugs to their
resettlement countries.
Clearly, the longer refugees remain in
the Hong Kong camps the greater the risk that they might, for
these reasons, create resettlement problems once they arrive here;
there is also a danger of unwelcome publicity.
Conclusion
15 Despite these difficulties we achieved as much as we could hope
for on this trip. We had aimed to select a minimum of 1,500
refugees and well exceeded this number. We received excellent assistance from the Hong Kong Immigration Department without which
not
we could he have achieved so much.
It is to be hoped that the
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