CONFIDENTIAL
Ps/hard Belstead/
15
pa.
See@
FCS/83/16
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT
HKK:24312
RECEIVED IN RASIPY NO. 5]
- 2 FEB 1933
DESK OFFICER INDEX
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1.
Vietnamese Refugees in Hong Kong
Home Office officials and voluntary agencies have done remarkably well to resettle the 16,000 boat people who have come here since 1979, particularly since this is
not a country with which the Vietnamese have any great historical links, very few come with any useful training or skills and the high proportion remaining unemployed is proving an additional burden on social security funds.
I know that you have had reservations about the idea of
taking further Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong.
2.
However, there is no doubt that the Hong Kong authorities are facing an increasingly intractable problem. Despite their policy since last summer of keeping new arrivals in closed camps, and despite the increasing awareness in the region that eventual resettlement in the
West is now much less likely, refugees continue to set out from Vietnam at the rate of about 4,000 a month; and in the season of the south west monsoon a high proportion head for Hong Kong. They still have nearly 13,000 refugees in camps, and with far stricter criteria being applied by the United States authorities, the numbers leaving for the main resettlement destination have fallen sharply.
3.
I do not believe we are in a position to make a serious impression on the numbers Hong Kong is likely to
CONFIDENTIAL
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