:
[HK1AEV]
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
pa 243/5,
Telephone 01- 233 3988
Miss Hannah Stanton
& Peace
Secretary, world (inference on Religions + PEACE
30 Burton's Road Hampton Hill
Middlesex
TW12 IDA
in
Your reference
Our reference
Date 2 September 1985
Dear Miss Stanton
(277)
276
Thank you for your letter of 18 August to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs about the Vietnamese refugees who are in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement. I have been asked to reply.
Both Her Majesty s and the Hong Kong Governments are extremely concerned about this problem, and are anxious to do everything possible to solve it.
to solve it. The population of Hong Kong's refugee camp s currently stands at about 10,700. The Hong Kong Government grants temporary asylum to all newly arriving Vietnamese boat people (over 100,000 have arrived since 1979), and accommodates them in camps until resettlement places can be found for them. Some of the camps are run by the local office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); the rest by the Hong Kong Government. Voluntary agencies play an important part in the
running of all the camps, particularly in the education and training of refugees, and in the provision of welfare services.
It is proving increasingly difficult to find resettlement places for the Vietnamese refugees who are currently in Hong Kong (as it is for those who are in other places of first asylum in South East Asia). We maintain close contact with UNHCR and other countries
in order to find a solution for this aspect of the problem in Hong Kong and elsewhere. The United Kingdom has itself accepted some 19,000 Vietnamese refugees for resettlement, most of them from Hong Kong. We also have a continuing international commitment to accept family reunion and ship rescue cases.
MKK 243/5
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
03 SEP 1985
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