154
4 February 1985]
[Mr Hunt Contd.]
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE
MR R LUCE, MP, MR A C GALSWORTHY, DR D C WILSON and Dr D CarteR
we are more concerned about are the difficulties in getting single young men resettled. Unaccompanied minors used to be a problem, but these have been catered for to a large extent by the departures to resettlement countries. As you may be aware, we have taken a modest number ourselves of 25 unaccompanied minors very recently. There are currently, if it is of any help to Mr Hunt, 94 disabled cases in Hong Kong, of which 73 are being considered by resettlement countries. The remaining 21 have either already been rejected by re- settlement countries or are new arrivals. I hope that that helps to set the scale of the problem.
241. As I see it, there could be a possible conflict of interest on this matter, between the Foreign Office and the Home Office, your Department being concerned, rightly, with international relations and, indeed, with conditions in Hong Kong as well, the Home Office being concerned, amongst other things, to ensure that immigration totals do not rise unduly. We have heard a lot about logjams this afternoon. Is there any kind of logjam between the Foreign Office and the Home Office? It would perhaps be unfair to ask you to answer that directly, but may I put it another way and say are you satisfied with the co-ordination between the two Departments on this parti- cular issue?
(Mr Luce.) Mr Hunt, I would like first of all to assure you that there is no logjam between myself and Mr Waddington; and that we try to work-and do work, I believe--as a Government. It is our duty, in our respective Departments, to see the problem as a whole. I certainly believe, speaking more widely for the Government, that we have very real problems here in terms of immigration. We have, as you yourself and the Committee have recog- nised, been very generous on Vietnamese refugees. I believe equally that the Home Office do recognise that we, as a Govern- ment too, looking at it as a whole, have a responsibility to Hong Kong. It is simply a question of our working together to try to find a sensible resolution to this problem. Of course it is the case that the Foreign Office take the lead on Hong Kong, and the Home Office take the lead on immigration. But together, as part of the Government, we have to work to find a resolution to this. I feel that we are working sensibly together, but we still have to find a resolution to this very serious problem in Hong Kong.
[Continued
242. As you said, this Committee may conceivably be able to help in that direction?
(Mr Luce.) I personally believe and I do believe Mr Waddington does too--that this Committee can contribute very substan- tially to this very difficult problem.
Chairman
243. Referring to the closed camps, do you think that enough is being done to prepare the refugees there for life in West- ern countries? I know that when I was there I was rather distressed to see enormous and very garish religious paintings on the walls, which I did not think was particularly helpful. Do you think enough is being done to assist these people?
(Mr Luce.) I realise it is important, because the shock of the change of culture and background can be very big. My preliminary reaction would be that I would think it is difficult to provide anything too concrete, without knowing in what country they are going to be resettled. Once that is settled, I know from our own policies, other countries do follow policies which help in adjusting and and in teaching languages. In answer to that, perhaps I could ask Mr Galsworthy or Dr Carter if they can help.
(Mr Galsworthy.) I think we all recognise that whatever is being done, there is always room for improvement. I believe that we are looking very carefully for ways in which this can be done. I understand that the Hong Kong Government have recently agreed with the UNHCR that there should
be an education co-ordinator to co-ordinate the education programme in the camps; and that UNHCR should appoint such a co- ordinator. Besides language training, there are other types of training envisaged in the camps. As I believe you may know, the Hong Kong Government are building, with UNHCR funds, a multi-purpose workshop in the Hei Ling Chau centre, which we hope will be operational before long. So I think that efforts are in hand in this field. I am sure we can always do more, and we are always looking at it.
244. Do you think it is entirely fair to thrust religious posters and portraits onto people from a culture who are not accus- tomed to that?
(Mr Luce.) I should just say that if you are referring, Mr Wheeler, to evangelical organisations undertaking such activities, this is something that we do not encourage at all. Indeed, representations have been made to us on this matter by the British