CODE 18-77
HE
Mr Adams
RESTRICTED
Cc: R D Clift Esq, HKGD, FCO
copied to SEAD
and
Reference
Mr Mclaren P.A. HONG KONG.
Hkk2431
RECAVED IN ITERY NO. 51
UNHCR AND HONG KONG
No
AF415
4/5
1. Sir Edward Youde had a friendly 45 minute talk with Mr Hartling on 26 March. Mr Smyser came in late. The following summarises the main points.
2. Mr Hartling pointed out that enormous numbers of South-East Asian refugees had been resettled in recent years through UNHCR: he mentioned a figure of 300,000. The remaining case- load was only 40,000. We should not despair of placing these. He believed the numbers involved to be manageable. The trouble was that the flow might continue. They would keep up the pressure on resettlement countries.
3. Asked whether UNHCR might encourage Vietnam to limit the flow, he said that UNHCR could not contemplate such a course: the right to emigrate was a universal human right and he could not suggest it should be limited. He did not recognise a distinction between political and economic refugees: people could be persecuted by economic means for political reasons. One should however distinguish carefully between refugees (who could not return home) and economic migrants (who could).” He paid tribute to Hong Kong for its liberal and humane attitude to the Vietnamese refugees. The refugees had also been allowed to work thus reducing the load on UNHCR finances. Sir E Youde asked whether their funds could support refugees not allowed to work. The High Commissioner said that they had managed this for a time in other programmes: but they did not like the concept of long term camps.
4. Mr Koulischer mentioned that there were now a large number of refugees from Vietnam in the category of young men between age 18 and age 25. These were difficult to resettle since they were not acceptable to many countries as refugees. They were not just draft dodgers; military service in South Vietnam was so harsh as to amount to persecution.
5. Mr. Smyser mentioned an unconfirmed report that Vietnam has undertaken to provide large numbers of migrant workers for projects in the Soviet Union. Mr Hartling said that the best means he could see to discourage people from attempting to escape as boat refugees was to make the Orderly Departure Programme work smoothly. If people could see that the queue was at least moving, they might wait and not risk their lives at
sea.
เ
either
6. He did not like the concept of "humane deterrence": policies were humane (and so did not deter) or deterrent (and inhumane). Whatever the "push" or "pull" factors, becoming a refugee was not a matter that anyone considered lightly. "Pull" factors were not decisive: refugees had flowed in large numbers when there were little or no prospects of resettlement, and when large numbers were being resettled the flow of new refugees had fallen right back.
/7.