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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
Telephone 01- 233 3149
472:
Ahr Leetys for inf
pc. 8 SCORRI
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Miss D J Walker UKMis Geneva
Dear delia,
:
MKK 243/2
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
16 DEC 1985
DESK OFFic: INDEX
A. CISTRY
PA
Avenant Taken
Your reference
Our reference UNS 243/3
Date 13 December 1985
UNHCR: RESETTLEMENT COSTS FOR IN
CHINESE REFUGEES
1. Thank you for your letter of 28 November.
2.
We have now completed our inter-departmental consultations and, I am afraid, have concluded that HMG will not be in a position to meet the travel costs of the 500 or so refugees in Hong Kong which we announced, in our response to the SCORRI report, that we would resettle in the UK. However, the ODA are considering contributing £100,000 to the special appeal enclosed with your letter. This response would specifically exclude external travel costs.
3. We hope that, assuming that the proposed contribution by the ODA is confirmed, this will go some way towards mitigating any disappointment that UNHCR may feel at the fact that we shall not be paying for the 500 resettlers' travel costs.
4. You should not at this stage raise the subjects of the special appeal or the travel costs of the 500 resettlers with UNHCR. The ODA will be in touch with you about our response to the special appeal in due course. We raised the question of the travel costs of the 500 resettlers informally with Kevin Lyonette when he called on the FCO on 11 December, and indicated to him that HMG was not able to meet these costs. He did not seem surprised and accepted the news without question. We hope that UNHCR will not now raise the question again; if you receive any formal approach about this, please refer it to UND.
Ymars www. whard
R J WILDASH
United Nations Department
cc: S C Wells Esq, RSCS, B2 Division, Home Office, Lunar House
Mrs J Wyeth, DRU BCD ODA
Ms OR Walker HKD
5. Nash ESE-SGAP