5.
[3]
25 cases to the Home Office, which would be followed up.
The Chairman reported on the correspondence with diplomatic representatives of major resettlement countries (circulated with agenda). The Home Office had said that the BRC argument that a UK initiative would encourage other countries of resettlement to break the log jam of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong could not be proved. The reply from the Canadian High Commissioner had supported the Home Office case, but the reply from the Australian High Commissioner gave strong support to the BRC argument. A telex from George Schulz (US Secretary of State) to SCORRI in response to similar request from the clerk to SCORRI, Mr. D J Gerhold, gave as strong support to the BRC case as the Australian High Commissioner had done.
It was agreed that a letter would be sent to the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and SCORRI quoting from both the Australian High Commissioner's
letter and the US Government telex.
Stephen Nash (FCO) said that Richard Luce (Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office) had stated that a British initiative would have a positive effect on other resettlement countries. The FCO was in constant contact with these countries.
The Chairman said that an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons had been sponsored by the following MPs: Dr Jeremy Bray; Mr David Howell; Mr Russell Johnston; Sir Nicholas Bonsor; Mr Stuart Bell. The Chairman then read the text of E.D.M. 331 "Vietnamese Refugees in Hong Kong", which was:
That this House, while giving full credit to the Hong Kong Government for accepting all Vietnamese refugees who reach the terrority, considers the conditions obtaining in the closed camps quite tolerable in a British colony; recognises that unless a programme of resettlement is organised internationally the refugees in both closed and open camps and their children can have no expections of leading normal lives; and therefore calls on Her Majesty's Government, having concluded a successful negotiation with the People's Republic of China, now to take the initiative by accepting a quota and to call a conference of interested countries urgently to seek a solution to the problem.
It was agreed that the BRC should write to all interested MPs asking them to sign the E.D.M. It was agreed that voluntary agencies, particularly with branches outside London, should approach their local MPs asking them to sign the E.D.M.
Those approaching MPs were encouraged to use the relevant correspondence to demonstrate that it was now quite clear that the UK's reluctance to accept Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong had a negative effect on other potential resettlement countries.
TAMILS
5.1 Tamils in India
Irene Khan (UNHCR) reported that UNHCR had no official status in India, and operated through the U.N.D.P. (largely with Afghani and Iranian refugees). Escalating violence in Sri Lanka had increased the number of refugees to India. There were now 60,000 Tamil refugees in Tamil Nadu province. Some 12,000 had arrived in the last 5-6 weeks, sometimes arriving at the rate of 500 a day.