RECE
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 243/1
BRITISH EMBASSY
MANILA
по 43 Арчелло
: : Af
A E Donald Esq CMG
FCO
London SW1
Dear Alan,
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
22 February 1982
Ив
12/3 Mr. Burns (SEAD),
24/1 (4K53)
Inter
Act-13
Hkk 243/21. Philip Haddon-Cave in his letter to you of
2 December setting out the theoretical options in 1981 tackling the Vietnamese refugee problem as it
118
presents itself in Hong Kong, raised (para 8f) the possibility of deploying the threat to repatriate the refugees. Heads of Mission in the region were invited to assess the likely local response to this.
عرحمة
2. Under present circumstances the Filipinos would be most unlikely to countenance negotiations with the Vietnamese on repatriation and would certainly not initiate them.. Nor would they make moves even to threaten repatriation. It would be a case of supping with the devil when, from the Filipino point of view, there is no pressing need to do so. Discussion of repatriation in the context of a comprehensive settlement in Indo-China would, of course, be another matter but there is no sign of that.
3. The Filipinos, in a sense, can afford to take a more detached view than their mainland ASEAN colleagues and doubtless Hong Kong. The number of first asylum cases, whilst admittedly still on the increase, has never exceeded the present six to seven thousand. They are accommodated without real difficulty in a camp on the large but for most people remote island of Palawan. The Bataan Refugee Processing Camp presents no financial burden to the Philippines and its inmates, of course,
of course, already
already have third countries to go to. Admittedly both camps are now virtually full and Filipinos have told us that there are no plans to open new centres. A recent request from the French for the Philippines to accept 1500 refugees here for six months for training prior to going to France is likely to be turned down. There are thus limits to Philippine hospitality But even if circumstances were more difficult for them I suspect the Filipinos, instinctively, would shrink from
CONFIDENTIAL
/initiating