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United Kingdom Mission
37-39 rue de Vermont 1211 Geneva 20
Telex 22956
Telegrams Prodrome Geneva
Telephone 34 38 00 33 23 85
C Leeks Esq
Hong Kong Department
FCO
Dear Clintan
HONG KONG:
1.
HKK 243/5
REGISTRY
RECEIVEL
15 MAY 1985
INDEX
aw
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
Reg Pl enter
243/5
Your reference
ourfeference
Dat
RECISTRY
Action Taken
ви
Bu 17 June to Ar Leeks
157
Ho cansider whether
we should reply
to para£3,
depending
8 May 1985
pu on 716
On #how HK have reacted i
the meantime).
ow.145
During a call on Robert Cooper, Resettlement Section UNHCR, to discuss RASRO I raised the question of replacements for Caritas and Red Cross at Jubilee and Kai Tak camps respectively.
2. Cooper said that he had recently visited Jubilee and found it in very good condition. It was clean, not crowded and the facilities offered were most impressive. As an aside he wondered when Hong Kong would begin to charge the refugees rent! He took a different line on Caritas to Mrs Lazan (my letter of 18 April refers). He believed that Caritas did not want to leave Jubilee but were being forced to do so by the Americans following a report at the end of last year that the camp was over-crowded, dirty and full of drug users. In Cooper's view Caritas were hanging on in the hope that the Americans would change their mind. He admitted that UNHCR were being less than fully active in finding an organisation to replace Caritas (for which the Americans would presumably pay) but felt that
the inactivity, in this instance, might prove best policy. Cooper was less sure how to tackle the Red Cross, decision to withdraw from Kai Tak but said that UNHCR would certainly give it some thought.
A
3. From what Cooper said it seems that the Americans, and not the UNHCR, are in the driving seat to find a manager for Jubilee. If Hong Kong consider that Caritas genuinely wishes to continue, and that they could perform creditably, there might be some mileage in a UK approach to the Americans to withdraw their
While Caritas is still operating at
a Jubilee I doubt whether UNHCR will do anything to pursue a solution.
ever
Yours
Brian
By Walker
I There is someth
something
cc:
P Cole Esq, UND, FCO
K Woodhouse Esq, Hong Kong
B D Adams
to this: the US was
very
vitical last
yo.
that!
Caitas
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believe this
the excuse withobaw/ theater to). Let's see what HK say.
ctc 15/5