GL Angel Esq
Home Office
Lunar House Wellesley Road Croydon
CR9 2BY
SHIPPING POLICY DIVISION
DEPARTMENT OF TRADE
1 VICTORIA STREET
LONDON SW1H OET
Telephone Direct Line
Switchboard
01-215 5588
01-215 7877
21 September 1981
Dear Angel
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
Thank you for your letter of 16 September alerting me to the proposal to authorise the Hong Kong Immigration Department to fill the quota for Vietnamese refugees. It is most useful to be kept in touch with developments in this way.
This proposal does not cause us any difficulty here, provided of course that it will still be made possible for refugees to leave our ships at Hong Kong. The point on which I would welcome further advice is exactly how the Hong Kong authorities will approach this matter. Will they seek from HMG an ultimate resettlement guarantee to which we respond on Yes the in the same way as, for example, Singapore
muille seem The treaty everyour the
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X 11
the present case by case basis? It would put HMG in a highly invidious position if for any reason resettlement was declined or even the guarantee delayed - and refugees picked up by a British ship were not allowed to disembark in a British dependent territory. From the shipping point of view, the theology is of less importance than the end result and if the case by case system continues to work. satisfactorily, so be it. But presentationally and jurisdictionally we obviously cannot pretend that Hong Kong is on a par with Singapore. Incidentally, it would be interesting to know how Hong Kong treats refugees picked up by Hong Kong-registered ships.
I should be grateful for briefing, in due course, on the outcome of the UNHCR meeting in Geneva next month.
Yours sincerely
R W SIMPSON
Polini Sunday бил
cc K FX Burns Esq, SEAD, FCO
JC Hindley Esq, VSU, QAG
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