THE BRITISH REFUGEE COUNCIL
Chairman: SIR ARTHUR PETERSON, KCB. MVO.
Vice Chairmen
SIR LESLIE KIRKLEY, CBE
KENNETH LEE
Honorary Treasurers A. H CHAPMAN, FCA H. A. SHAW, OBE
Director MARTIN BARBER, Ph. D.
LE/HH
Mr. David Waddington, QC., MP
Minister of State for Home Affairs
The Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London
SW1H 9AT
BONDWAY HOUSE, 3/9, BONDWAY, LONDON, SW8 1SJ.
Telephone. 01-582 6922
Cables: BREFCON. LONDON, SW8.
8 August 1985
We were very grateful for your continuing co-operation in meeting with a delegation from the BRC and its member agencies on 15 May to discuss the report by the Home Office Sub-Committee and specifically questions about the resettlement in Britain of Vietnamese refugees presently in Hong Kong and other countries of South-East Asia. Since then we have all been saddened by the death of Joyce Pearce. Although this is an official letter I feel it is important to mention that here. Joyce has, through the years, been both an inspiration and an example to all of us who try to care for those who have become refugees. We shall all, and not just Ockenden Venture, miss her greatly.
We fully recognise the complexity of the questions raised by the SCORRI report. Since it appears that we are not now to have a definitive response from the Government before October, it seems appropriate to report to you the discussions that took place in our Asia Committee when I told them about our earlier discussions.
First of all I want to assure you of the continued wish by the agencies to co-operate with the Home Office on any programme of resettlement for refugees from camps in Hong Kong and elsewhere. In discussions with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees a figure of 1,000 refugees in addition to 500 family reunion cases was mentioned. We realise that there are many issues to be considered. For that reason we have had an informal meeting between a few people within the agencies at which Home Office officials were also present so that we could share our thinking with each other. In this way we hope that the Government can make its decision with the benefit of the fullest possible information on different ways in which the agencies may be able to assist. This would also prepare the way for detailed discussions once the Home Office decision is announced.
The Asia Committee expressed the hope that any further group of refugees might include within it some of those who are likely to have more than normal difficulties in resettlement, and also some of the unaccompanied children who need the kind of specialist care that we have had some experience in providing.
(Continued)
Registered under the Charities Ac; 1960 No. 283993
The British Refugee Council incorporates the British Council for Aid to Refugees and the Standing Conference on Refugees