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30 SEP 1933
DESK OFFICER
ACGIS:RY
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
INDEX
PA
Action Taken
No
Ry
Dam
29 September 1983
D Mellor Esq HM Ambassador
ASUNCION
Dear Derrick,
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
►
see (5884)
1 I am sorry not to have replied earlier to your letter of 12 August. I am most grateful to you for looking in to this matter in such detail and the material provided in your letter is very helpful.
2.
We sent a copy of your letter to the Hong Kong Government who have replied as follows:
"We have consulted the local UNHCR office on the relevant 'points in Mellor's letter of 12 August. Their reaction was predictable: regarding financial support for refugees to be resettled in Paragray, UNHCR would be willing to fund any viable scheme for a "durable solution" that was submitted to them. We would rather pursue this option than consider a Hong Kong Government contribution to the costs of settlement, since this would be very hard to justify to local opinion. Regarding guarantees that those resettled will stay on the land, this assurance UNHCR were of course unable to give. Their view, and ours, would be that the key to this lies both in the selection process here and in the' arrangements made by Paraguay for those selected.
As to numbers, the latest UNHCR analysis of our caseload shows 183 adults who have recorded their profession as "farmer". This is a very small number out of the 13000 now here, and we may assume it excludes rural unemployed and labourers. With families these 183 might comprise about 600 persons. However, over 100 have been in open refugee centres for some time, and so will have integrated fairly well into an urban environment. The 70 or so in closed centres would be a better place to start any selection process for Paraguay, to which we might then add volunteers or carefully selected individuals from the open centres."
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