BACKGROUND
The City of Edinburgh, owned by the Ben Line and registered
in London, rescued 34 refugees on 24 June this year en route
to Hong Kong. After consideration with the Home Office and
Department of Trade it was agreed to undertake to resettle
in the United Kingdom any not resettled elsewhere in three
months. Eight have been resettled, and the rest have been
granted visas for the UK. There may however be some delay
in arranging reception for them as the Home Office and
voluntary agencies' programmes have all been run down.
The Po Yang, Hong Kong registered, reached Hong Kong on 2 July 1981
with 42 rescued boat people. UNHCR have resettled 18, but since
at the time of arrival, the UK quota was still open, no agreement
was made with Hong Kong on settling the residue.
Unresettled,
they are now an embarrassment for Hong Kong when attempting to
persuade other flag states to take off their residuals.
Hong Kong do not think they can afford to start settling them
there, but the Home Office are unwilling to accept a commitment
to take rescues from Hong Kong registered shipping. However,
last year we obliged Bermuda to take responsibility for all those rescued by ships on their register (though all ships on these registers fly the British flag).