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Mr. Mc Quid
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
Telephone 01- 3470
JF Nicholson Esq
Voluntary Services Unit
Home Office
Queen Anne's Gate
LONDON
SW1
Dear Micholson,
Your reference
Our reference
Date
HKK243/1
20 December 1982
π
Afeliz
REPORT BY THE JOINT COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM
1.
Thank you for sending us a copy of last month's JCRV report on the Vietnamese refugeee programme.
2. It has been very useful to see in detail the problems raised by the resettlement of over 1,500 boat people and their relatives over the last four years and the lessons being drawn for the future. It is not for departments here, of course, to comment directly on these administrative arrangements; but it may be worth repeating how important it has been for us to be able to make such an impressive effort in sharing the international responsibility for resettling these unfortunate people.
3. While I gather it is unlikely that any further quota such as that declared in 1979 will be opened and the report makes very clear (para 81) the resettlement problems caused by the categories of refugees received under that quota - it does also seem that some residual responsibility for boat people or other Vietnamese refugees will continue for some time: not only the close relatives of those already here but the continuing possibility of rescues by British shipping. Arrivals of boat people this year in South East Asia averaged nearly 4,000 a month. Many more may have set out. So long as we retain a substantial merchant fleet and so long as countries of first asylum in the region make it policy to insist on guarantees of resettlement from flag states before disembarcation, there will remain a likelihood of periodic requests to accept ship rescues. know that these are dealt with on a strictly case-by-case basis and we have never declared a policy commitment to receive those rescued by British shipping (and anyway only 40 have been picked up by UK ships this year). Even so, I suggest it would be valuable to retain in place a certain amount of the administrative machinery for handling refugees to enable us properly to manage occasional crises in the future.
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