CONFIDENTIAL
fice
109
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
D Mellor Esq H M Ambassador British Embassy Asuncion
PARAGUAY
Dear David,
HKCK 243/2
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
16 AUG 1983
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
PA
REGISTRY
tion Taken
и
3 August 1983
POSSIBLE RESETTLEMENT OF VIETNAMESE REFUGEES FROM HONG KONG
1. We were interested to see that the Paragayan Government expressed willingness in principle to accept a group of Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong (paragraph 10 of your letter ref 240/1 of 18 May to Adrian Sindall). We have sought the preliminary views of the Hong Kong Government on the feasibility of trying to select a group of refugees likely to meet the Paraguayans' criteria for acceptance. I enclose copies of our letter to Hong Kong and their reply.
2. Selection of suitable refugees may well prove difficult. However, in view of the serious difficulties Hong Kong faces (there are currently over 13,000 Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement in third countries), we are keen that all possibilities for resettlement should be pursued. I should therefore be grateful if you could raise the subject again informally with the Paraguayan authorities, and ask them how many refugees they would be willing to accept, and how soon they would be able to receive them. It would also be useful to know what type of agriculture the refugees would be most likely to be involved in, to enable the UNHCR to make the most appropriate selection (paragraph 2 of Mr Mason's letter of 6 July refers).
3. I should be also grateful for your assessment of how well any Vietnamese who go to Paraguay are likely to be treated by the authorities there, given Paraguay's human rights record and the fact that the authorities have in the past been criticised over the handling of their own peasant farmers. HMG could possibly come under criticism if it were thought that refugees from Hong Kong were being resettled in Paraguay albeit voluntarily, only to be persecuted in much the same way they would have been if they had remained in Vietnam.
RD Clift
Your Dich бадии 7.
R.S. Many manhs for your
help over this
cc: A K Mason Esq
Operations Division Government Secretariat
HONG KONG
Hong Kong Department
CM J Segar Esq, SEAD, FCO
D J Peak Esq, UND, FCO
MJ McLoughlin Esq, SAMD, FCO
CONFIDENTIAL