Alistair Goodlad Esq MP
22 November 1985
Assistance under the various schemes is available to students from most developing countries and particularly those in the Common- wealth. Tim Raison has recently announced that the new ODA Shared Scholarship Scheme for very bright but poor students in develop- ing countries is to be increased from 450 to 500 awards in the first five years, starting in 1986. In 1984/85 over 16,000 students from over 150 countries were helped, in many cases with all fees being paid and the provision of a monthly stipend as a contribution towards living costs, at a total cost of over £75 million.
Vietnamese
Your constituent also mentioned the question of resettlement
The Government are of South East Asian refugees in Hong Kong. extremely concerned about the plight of the 10,000 refugees in camps in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement overseas. There are no Cambodians in the camps. Caring for the 100,000 refugees who have sought asylum there since 1975 has not been easy. The Hong Kong Government, the local Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the various voluntary agencies working in Hong Kong have nevertheless provided all the refugees with accommodation in eight camps throughout the territory, food and medical, educational and welfare facilities. We and the Hong Kong Government remain anxious to see them resettled soon. This has become difficult in recent years but we
These include: are currently making special efforts to achieve this.
our decision to accept for resettlement some 500 refugees, mostly from camps in Hong Kong, who have relatives in the UK but who would normally fall outside the Home Office's immigration criteria for family reunion cases;
consideration to accept further limited numbers, subject to the willingness shown by other resettlement countries to respond to Hong Kong's needs. The Hong Kong Government would similarly be prepared to consider absorbing limited numbers from the camps, again dependent on other countries' responses to the UK's initiative.
In cooperation with the Hong Kong Government and UNHCR, we are also actively pressing other countries to take additional refugees from Hong Kong. It is too early to know what response there will be to our efforts. Positive replies have already been received from several countries. In particular, Australia has announced that it
/will