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Thi ritish Refugee Council's comments on specific points in the Government's
reply to the Home Affairs Select Committee's Report on Refugees and Asy Hum
Vietnamese in Hong Kong
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Mr. Harland.
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The BRC welcomes the decision to admit some 500 Vietnamese from camps in Hong Kong and other South-east Asian countries. Their processing and arrival will need to be carefully organised and the refugee agencies will need to be involved in the arrangements from the beginning, including interviewing in Hong Kong.
The refugee agencies will require additional staff to organise the reception and resettlement of these people.
Ockenden Venture, Refugee Action and the British Refugee Council also hope that the general public will want to support their work with Vietnamese refugees.
The BRC very much regrets the Government's decision to continue with the closed camp policy in Hong Kong. BRC's objections to this policy were based purely on humanitarian grounds and were endorsed by the Select Committee which said that the closed camps were "a considerable stain on Britain's humanitarian reputation".
The BRC remains of the ew that the closed camp system is intolerable and that in this situation the desire to discourage further arrivals from Vietnam cannot justify the measures employed.
The Government recognises that the root cause of the problem is contained in the social and economic conditions in Vietnam. The BRC has been consistently urging the Government to open a dialogue with the Vietnamese Government and people and to initiate cooperation on development programmes which might help to improve the very social and economic conditions which are leading to the refugee outflow.
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The BRC is pleased to note that the Foreign Office intends to undertake a "diplomatic offensive" with a view to persuading other resettlement countries to take more refugees from Hong Kong and trusts that success in these efforts will lead to rapid approval by the Government for an additional intake of Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong to Britain, including a number of the unaccompanied minors for whom the agencies have offered to provide resettle- ment opportunities. The BRC also welcomes the willingness of the Hong Kong Government to consider offering settlement to some of the Vietnamese refugees of Chinese origin now in camps in Hong kong.
Vietnamese in Britain
The BRC is pleased to note the Government's clear statement that the dispersal policy for Vietnamese refugees was inappropriate. It also welcomes the Government's recognition of the need for better coordination and assistance with resettlement. The BRC particularly agrees with the need for improvement of coordination in the field of training and employment. The Government has clearly recognised that the problems facing refugees in these areas are formidable. While welcoming the setting-up of an informal working group on education, training and employment, the BRC regrets that none of the practical suggestions made by the agencies and proposed by the Select Committee have been taken up by the Government. The agencies have done a great deal to develop the potential for refugees to take part in existing MSC-funded schemes, but sugges- tions by the Select Committee for the removal of practical obstacles preventing refugees from getting maximum benefit from these schemes have unfortunately been ignored.