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NOTE OF A MEETING HELD AT 4 pm ON 6 NOVEMBER 1980ED IN REGISTRY NO. 64
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
Present:
Home Secretary Mr Raison
1 1 NOV 1980
PECK.
Sir Murray Malchase (Governor of
DESK OFFICER
Mong Kong)
/ A4"/11 ли
Mr Woodfield
Mr Boys Smith
Mr Clift (FCO)
He
Sir Murray Maclehose outlined the position as he saw it. appreciated that from the point of view of the United Kingdom it would be better not to add to the number of Vietnamese refugees to be resettled. The resettlement programme in the UK had so far gone very well.
The success of the programme as a whole, as far as Hong Kong was concerned, rested mainly on the continued help of the United States and Canada. If, as he hoped, the United States would take some 1,500 refugees a month through 1981, the problem could be largely solved, but this was not likely to happen if the UK was seen not to be making a continuing effort. He had been struck by the view, expressed for example by members of the United States Congress, that the United States ought not to continue with the programme on this scale unless the United Kingdom also received more refugees after it had fulfilled its present quota in the early part of 1981.
2. In the light of this Sir Murray hoped that the United Kingdom Government would be ready to say that the programme would continue and that it would be sending a team to Hong Kong to consider possible candidates for resettlement when the present programme had been completed. A statement of this kind would help the Hong Kong Government considerably in its dealing with the United States. In due course the United Kingdom could, as a result, be asked how many more refugees it would be ready to receive and he hoped that the Government would say that it would accept a further quota of, say, not more than 5,000.
3. The Home Secretary thanked Sir Murray for explaining the position. He well understood the problems facing the Government of Hong Kong. He accepted that the United Kingdom would in practice have to continue to receive people rescued at sea.
There were, however, considerable difficulties in the United Kingdom as he saw it in undertaking a further commitment. So far the resettlement programme had been managed smoothly and quietly and much of its success was because it had not received much publicity. To date some 7,250 refugees had arrived and the full quota was expected to be achieved by about March 1981. The main difficulty was housing: the lack of accommodation was slowing down the movement of refugees from the camps into the community. Local authorities were under severe financial restraint and there was great intensity of feeling in the country about unemployment. Fears about receiving large numbers of refugees might not so far have been articulated, but they were nonetheless very real. In these circumstances a
/further quota