CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 243
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
14 JUL 1983
H of C
DESK OFFICER
REGISTRY
INDEX
PA
Action Taken
VISIT OF MR JEAFFRESON
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(106)
Reference
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Th
243/1
1. Following Mr Jeaffreson's call on the High Commissioner, UNHCR arranged for a meeting with officials. In addition to Mr Jeaffreson and myself, those present were Mr Simmington, Mr Anvar, Mr Feldmann and Mr Casella.
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2. Mr Jeaffreson began by floating an idea to hold those refugees presently in Hong Kong in another country. He said that Hong Kong would be willing to finance their maintenance elsewhere. Would UNHCR expect this to be done on a 100% basis? Mr Anvar said that UNHCR would not expect 100% maintenance and that a similiar arrangement could be made as existed for those refugees accommodated in the Refugee Processing Centres (RPCs) in Indonesia and Philippines. an important consideration was that all refugees placed in RPCs, or any other countries, had to have guarantees of resettlement in a third country. Would the refugees Hong Kong wished to transfer have such guarantees? After some discussion it was decided that these people would be those who are currently not placeable under any of the resettlement countries' criteria, and as such, would not have such a guarantee. Mr Jeaffreson realised that this idea would, therefore, be a non-starter.
3.
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Mr Simmington said that the only practical solution he could see for reducing Hong Kong's current case-load would involve the UK. If the UK would accept a new quota of up to a thousand people he felt certain that several of the major resettlement countries would at least match that figure and that others could be persuaded to take refugees from Hong Kong. This would have the effect of lowering Hong Kong's current load by about 6 to 7 thousand people. But the origin of the problem would not just go away. He foresaw refugees coming out of Vietnam for many years to come and that perhaps in a few years time such an exercise would have to be repeated. But if Hong Kong's sole interest now was to reduce the load and save money on maintenance and the production of new camps, his proposal would have that effect. Mr Jeaffreson said that he was seeing FCO and Home Office senior officials within the next few days and would of course raise this point but he considered the likelihood of UK agreement to be low.
4.
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The rest of the meeting consisted of a discussion of Hong Kong's current difficulties and emphasising their wish that UNHCR continue to push Hong Kong's case with resettlement countries.
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BD Adams
1
CODE 18-77
8 July 1983
cc: Ms O Walker, HKD,
HKD, FCO CM J Segar Esq, SEAD DJ Peate Esq, UND, FCO R McDowall, Home Office P Williamsón. Fisa Hana Vox
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