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simple machinery, and simultaneously to alleviate boredom while they wait for resettlement, thus reducing the likelihood of friction and
violence. It may be possible to step up or otherwise improve these activities. Opportunities for employment in the closed centres are limited. (Open centre refugees are of course free to seek outside
employment). It might be possible to provide more optional, paid
work within the centres without harming the overall deterrent
message of the closed centre policy provided the resources of land
and capital investment were available. The Hong Kong Government
further how they can provide refugees with
skills sought by resettlement countries.
are
to
now considering
iii) Use of Bataan Refugee Processing Centre (RPC) by the UK.
If (eg as a result of the SCORRI enquiry) HMG decide to take
take a large number of Vietnamese from Hong Kong on a continuing basis, it would be logical to consider making use of the Bataan facilities for those
selected for resettlement here. The aim of such a scheme would be
reduce the problems involved in integrating refugees upon arrival
in the UK, by means of intensive "orientation" courses in Bataan's
purpose built
Preliminary soundings of the US State
Department have indicated that the US Government, as the major user of the RPC, would welcome a decision by HMG to use the facilities,
and might be prepared to share some of the costs of training UK
resettlement cases in the centre. I f we were to decide to pursue
this, the next stage would be to consult UNHCR, who run and maintain
the RPC.
facilities.
iv)
The calling of another
Indo-Chinese refugees.
international
conference
on
There are two problems about this. The first is that we are not at
present able to take an initiative given our low resettlement rate.
The second i s that given that the Vietnamese refugee problem taken
as a whole is now much less acute than it was in 1979, we see little
prospect that a call for a conference would receive interest and
support from other countries involved.
Potential refugee
resettlement countries are heavily preoccupied with other more immediate problems, notably the famine in Africa and the exodus
from Afghanistan.
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