CONFIDENTIAL
(i)
(ii)
3.
HMG's decision to accept for resettlement some 500
refugees, mostly from Hong Kong, who have relatives in the
UK but who would normally fall outside the Home Office's immigration criteria for family reunion cases.
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.
In order to maximise the effect of this decision, we are
conducting a major diplomatic campaign to persuade othe
countries also to take additional numbers of refugees from Hong
Kong. We have instructed posts in a wide range of countries (the
US, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, EC and other European countries), to approach their host governments immediately after
the White Paper i s published. We wish to reinforce these
approaches by raising the subject at bilateral
bilateral and multilateral
meetings whenever opportunities arise in the coming weeks. It
would be very helpful if Mr Thomas could do 80 at the Political
Committee. Mr Rifkind raised the
Council lunch on
lunch on 1 October, and we
Secretary of
of State does SQ at his
3/4 October.
4.
matter at the Foreign Affairs
have also recommended that the
meeting with Herr Genscher
At present Hong Kong depends mainly on the US, Canada
Australia for resettlement places for the Vietnamese, countries have accepted
accepted varying numbers of refugees from Hon Kong since 1975. The UK, West Germany and France have taken
mo s t (12,300, 2,400 and 1,600 respectively), and Luxembourg th
least (5). France currently accepts the highest number from
sources (but, not surprisingly given
given its historical links wi
all the Indo-Chinese countries, accepts many more
more from elsewhere
in South East Asia than it does from Hong Kong).
Hong Kong Department
4 October 1985
CONFIDENTIAL