00
BRITISH EMBASSY
3100 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20008 Telephone: (202) 462-1340
der to
for inf
C Pa SCORRA
Clax
351
Mr Richard W Day
Chief Counsel and Staff Director Senate Judiciary Committee
Sub-Committee on Immigration and Refugee Policy
WASHINGTON DC 20510
Dear Mr Day.
24 October 1985
RECE
MICK 24.3.12
* 1985
.0%
INDEX
REGISTRY
PA
Action Taken
Thank you for your letter of 2 October about Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. You asked whether the British Government had pursued voluntary repatriation of Vietnamese refugees as a possible solution to Hong Kong's problems.
The British Government are indeed prepared to look at "durable solutions" other than third country resettlement as a means of dealing with long-term refugee problems. In principle, we have no objections to the idea of voluntary repatriation from Hong Kong, provided that it is carried out with the necessary safeguards. Our experience suggests however that voluntary repatriation, while possibly suited to other situations, will not provide promising relief in the foreseeable future for Hong Kong's Vietnamese refugee problem. First of all, very few refugees in Hong Kong, even among the long-term inhabitants of the closed camps, have indicated that they would be willing to return voluntarily to Vietnam. A further factor is the attitude of the Vietnamese Government. Although since 1978, 14 persons have voluntarily asked to be sent back, and have been accepted by Vietnam, of the four applications submitted to the Vietnamese Government since 1983, the Vietnamese Government has still not replied in respect of three, despite repeated reminders by the UNHCR, and has recently rejected one without giving reason.
It is because of this discouraging experience that we continue to seek resettlement opportunities in third countries for Hong Kong's Vietnamese refugees. We are not looking for spectacular gestures from the US; indeed too conspicuous
an increase in the off-take could precipitate a further unwelcome influx of Vietnamese to Hong Kong. What the Hong Kong authorities would most like to see would be a quiet but sustained increase in the current level - around 120 per month of US off-take from Hong Kong. We hope that, in the light of the steps which the British and Hong Kong Governments have already announced to try to deal with Hong Kong's chronic problem, that the US Government might be prepared to do something on these lines.
/I