Our reference: Your reference:
НКК 243/1
(70).
174).
Cabareten with of.
HOME OFFICE
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HKK 243/2
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
3 - NOV 1983
CO Hum Esq
Hong Kong Department
Foreign & Commonwealth Office LONDON SW1A 2AH
Deer Hun
DESK OFFICER
REGISTRY
INDEX
PA
Action Taken
Cr
1 November 1983
With ser
(- Tarllen
RESETTLEMENT OF VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
I must in turn
Thank you for your letter of 5 October. apologise for following this up rather belatedly.
At this remove I cannot recall all the details of my discussion with David Jeaffre son and I was not party to his discussion with Hayden Phillips. But I think I can say with some
certainty that Mr Jeaffre son's later recollection of the discussion ie that we did not say that we would consider a quota only in the context of forcible repatriation is the right one.
The question of forcible repatriation is a thorny one. I suspect that a number of western countries regard forcible repatriation of Vietnamese who can be shown to be economic adventurers to be a desirable aim but I doubt whether any single country would want to put itself in the position of being the first one to do so. Whether there is any prospect of a concerted approach by interested western countries remains to be seen but personally I rather doubt it. I was unaware that your Secretary of State had emphatically ruled out the possibility of forcible repatriation but I can see the reasons for this.
On quotas, I told Mr Jeaffreson that we had no plans to take a further quota of Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong. I gave him some of the background to the problems that the UK has faced in assimilating Vietnamese refugees and the pressures we face from the rapidly growing number of in-country applications for refugee status from a number of different nationalities. I said that we would, of course, be willing to consider proposals for a further quota should such proposals be put to us, but there were Considerable difficulties from our point of view. I do not think that we offered to take the issue up with you since, as you may recall, we consulted our Ministers on this issue some months ago when they were fundamentally opposed to a further quota. There have not been any marked changes in the situation since then.
/I