Multi-Fibre Arrangement
14.
See Brief No 7.
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Vietnamese Refugees
15.
HMG agreed at Geneva in 1979 to take 10,000 Vietnamese
refugees from Hong Kong. This quota now fully committed.
Numbers resettled in UK in fact over 10,000 because of inclusion
of some 1,000 covered by quota agreed by previous administration,
plus boat rescue cases.
16.
Now over 13,000 refugees in Hong Kong awaiting
resettlement (including some 500 to be returned to China).
Arrivals in July were 1,613, highest monthly arrival figure
since July 1979, and nearly 50% of total arrivals in the
region. Australian and Canadian resettlement programmes
tailing off, and US criteria for resettlement tightened.
Number in Hong Kong at end 1982 likely to be at least as high
as end 1981, ie around 13,000. From July 1982 all new
arrivals placed in closed camps to await resettlement.
is intended to deter those, thought now to be a majority, who
leave Vietnam for economic reasons rather than political
persecution. However, indications so far are that it has not
succeeded as a deterrent, partly because of the difficulty of
getting the new policy through to those who wish to leave Vietnam.
Hong Kong wants UK commitment to continue so that
17.
This
other countries, particularly US, will be encouraged to maintain
off-takes. UNHCR has appealed to UK to institute new quota.
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CONFIDENTIAL
/18.