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5. The White Paper was generally welcomed in Hong Kong. In the UK
there was little press comment. Since it was published, we have
been conducting a major diplomatic campaign to persuade other
countries to accept additional number of refugees from Hong Kong.
We have approached a wide range of countries, both those which
already accept refugees from Hong Kong on a regular basis (the US,
Australia and Canada) and those which have accepted them only
sporadically in the past (Japan, EC and other Western
Western European
countries, New Zealand). In addition the subject has been raised by
the Secretary of State with his Canadian and American counterparts,
by Lady Young with the New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister, by Mr Rifkind at the EC Foreign Ministers' lunch, and by the UK delegation
at the recent executive committee meeting of UNHCR in Geneva. A
further opportunity to raise the subject will be the Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meeting (16-22 October). Meanwhile Hong Kong
are also lobbying the Consular Corps in Hong Kong and through their
Overseas offices. Responses have been mixed. The main resettlement
countries have welcomed our decision, but i t is too early yet to
know what, if any,
additional commitments they will be prepared to
make.
Involuntary Repatriation to Vietnam
6. The Hong Kong Government have proposed this on several occasions
since 1982. Such a measure would be popular
be popular in Hong Kong, where
there is general resentment of the fact that newly arriving Vietnamese boat people receive better treatment than illegal Chinese immigrants, who despite having close ethnic and often family ties
with local Hong Kong Chinese, are almost invariably repatriated to China. When Ministers most recently (May 1985) considered the
possibility of discussing the subject of repatriation with the
Vietnamese Government (who have hitherto refused to accept back
refugees who departed from Vietnam illegally), the Secretary of
State decided that such a course should not be pursued. He took the
view that Parliamentary and public opinion in this country would not
accept that we should discuss forcible repatriation with the Vietnamese regime given our condemnation of Vietnamese policies, not
least in Cambodia. The HKG were informed of this.
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