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ME 3AEX
CONFIDENTIAL
LADY YOUNG'S MEETINGS WITH STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS:
13 JANUARY 1986
Vietnamese Refugees in Hong Kong
Background
XK 243/1
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
03 JAN1986
PA
REGISTRY
Action Taken
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
General
1.
in
9,500 Vietname se refugees
Hong Kong awaiting
resettlement: the largest number of
any place of first
asylum in South East Asia. The refugees are spending increasingly long periods in Hong Kong because of diminishing resettlement prospects: 60% have been there over 3 years. Since July 1982, in order to discourage further Vietname se from setting out by boat for Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Government have placed all newly arriving refugees in
closed camps, from which they are not allowed to- seek
outside employment. Arrival rate has slowed as a result,
but flow nevertheless continues.
Report of Home Affairs Sub-Committee on Race Relations and
Immigration (SCORRI)
2.
A Home Office White
White Paper in response to SCORRI's report on "Refugees and Asylum with Special Reference to the
Vietname se" wa s published on 26 September. It announced
inter alia:
(i)
HMG's decision to accept for resettlement some 500
refugees who have relatives in the UK but who
would normally fall outside the Home Office's
immigration criteria for family reunion cases.
(Most of these are in camps in Hong Kong, but a few will come from other places of first asylum in
South East Asia);
CONFIDENTIAL
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