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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
P J Williamson Esq
Security Branch
Government Secretariat HONG KONG
Telephone 01-233 4439
Your reference
Our reference
Date
Resettlement.
40
11 March 1983
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
1.
нкк 243/2
REGIVED IN RESSOY NO. 31
1 1 MAR 1983
DESK OFFICER INDEX
No
PA
Action T
"/3 C41113
23/3
You may be interested to know that Mr Wheen of the Australian High Commission in Hong Kong (whom you no doubt know) called on SEAD on 9 March together with Mr Gorman of the High Commission in London. Wheen is apparently in London on quite separate business related to computers, but felt that it would be useful to take the opportunity to go over the ground with us.
2.
I attended the meeting, which took the form of a general tour d'horizon of the refugee problem. I had an opportunity to put Hong Kong's case, and drew on the points in your telegram number 10 to Canberra. Wheen was clearly aware of Hong Kong's problems. He admitted that Australia gave precedence to ASEAN countries in selecting their offtake, but said that they expected to take 700 refugees from Hong Kong in the current year. He did not think that the recent change of Government in Australia would lead to any major change of policy, at least in the near future. He also said that since 1982 Australia no longer accepted automatically the UN assessment of refugee status, and that about 40% of those interviewed in Hong Kong (and elsewhere in the region) were rejected as not being refugees according to the Australian interpretation of the UN Convention.
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/3.