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journalists and other interested
groups, particularly the British
Refugee Council (BRC) who in December 1984 produced a pamphlet
"Behind Barbed Wire" about the camps. Mr Luce both corresponded
with the BRC and discussed with them their detailed criticisms of
Where possible their recommendations for improvement of
the camps.
conditions have been implemented by the HKG.
Report of Home Affairs
Immigration (SCORRI)
4.
Sub-Committee on Race Relations and
SCORRI's recent report
"Refugees and Asylum with Special
Reference to the Vietnamese" included a number of recommendations
relating to the problem of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. A Home
Office White Paper in response to the report was published on 26
September. With regard to the refugee situation in Hong Kong, it
announced the following:
(i)
(ii)
HMG's decision, in accordance with SCORRI'S recommendation,
to accept for resettlement some 500 refugees who have
relatives in the UK but who would normally fall outside the
Home Office's immigration criteria for family reunion cases. (Most of these are in camps in Hong Kong, but a few will come from other places of first asylum in South East Asia);
that, depending on
the willingness shown by other
resettlement countries to respond to Hong Kong's needs, HMG
are prepared to consider accepting further limited numbers from Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Government would similarly be
prepared to absorb limited numbers into Hong Kong from the
camps, but again this will depend on other countries'
response to the UK's initiative;
(iii) present circumstances do not make it possible to agree to
SCORRI's recommendation that Hong Kong's closed camp policy be ended. In HMG's view, abolition of the policy would cause
a sharp rise in the number of arrivals in Hong Kong, and
consequently an unacceptable and unmanageable rise in the
camp population in Hong Kong.
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