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REPORT ON DISCUSSIONS WITH NZ GOVERNMENT
MR A MALCOLM
MR LEN CROSS
MR MALPUSS
1.10.80
Parliamentary Under Secretary to Minister of Labour and Immigration
Director of Immigration
Department of Immigration (a refugee selector)
Both Mr Cross and Mr Malpuss have been to HK as refugee selectors.
My first interview was with Mr Len Cross and Mr Malpuss both of whom started the discussion with a number of statements. Here is a resumé of their statements taken from
a tape recording I made at the interview.
The tape will be duplicated and sent to you by the end of October 1980,
Mr Len Cross
NZ Government thinks HK's refugees are UK's problems, The UK should take boat people from HK at same rate as NZ is taking Indo-Chinese from Asia. 1 per 923 New Zealanders. The
NZ government has never been asked by UNHCR to take refugees from HK and the NZ government works through the Head Offier of UNHCR in Geneva. It would be against NZ's principles request people specially from HK.
to
HK does not have same economic problems as other Asian countries. For political reasons NZ will support ASEAN countries. NZ is more willing to support the countries NZ gives aid to. Mr Cross. believes that the North Vietnamese is more
an economic refugee rather than a political refuges, He showed a strong anti-feeling towards the North Vietnamesn as compared to South Vietnamese, He believes the North Vietnamese are not willing to work, critical of their living conditions in NZ, that the latter are not as good as they are used to. He says they are reluctant to accept their position as refugees. He said that there is no English training given in HK, the North Vietnamese have no interest in learning English, if the head of the household is working all day the family is not learning English. When I pointed out to him (when I had the chance later in the interview) that in fact there is English instruction given in the camps at varying times throughout the day and that the classes
were
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