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31. As the Committee has already been assured, the FCO will accord a high priority to finding a solution to this problem. It is prepared to devote great effort to its diplomatic offensive to persuade other countries to accept for res/Mement more Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong, and thus to maximise the effect of HMG's own commitment. As Mr Lnce told the Sul-Committee, the objective of the FCO must be to try to obtain a durable solution as fast as possible. The need for urgent action is underlined by the increasingly long periods that the refugees are having to spend in the camps. Besides the hopelessness and frustration that this engenders among the refugees themselves, JMG recognise that it may also increase their problems of integration when they are eventually resettled. Morcover as the FCO's memorandum of evidence to the Committee explained (Ex., p129), th. Chinese population in Hong Kong is increasingly rmentful of the special treatment accorded to Vietnamese refugees. For these reasons HMG are determined to take swift steps to attempt to persuade other countries to accept further refugees.
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PART 2: THE VIETNAMESE IN BRITAIN
Introduction
32. In the second part of its Report the Select Committec analysed the position of the Vietnamese in this country, and suggested that three lessons could be drawn from its study.
33. First, the Committee pointed to the value of involving refugees thennelves in the planning and organisation of resettlement at the earliest possible stage. The Government agrees that such involvement is highly desirable but observes that it is difficult to see how this could have been done initially when few Victurunese could have had any clear or realistic idea of what life in the United Kingdom would be like. Language difficulties were a further banier to such involvement and the Vietnamese themselves were not a homogenicous group. Over time however, many Vietnamese associations or community groups have been established and nearly half of the present regional officers employed under the Vietnamese Programme by the refugee agencies are Vietnamese; and many more are helping; their follow refugees by taking part in the British Refugee Councils' Community Programme projects. Though there is still no pational representative group which can be involved in formal consultations, these developments, taken together, have been such that the refugen agencies and the Government have increasingly been able to hear, and take account of the ideas as well as the concerns of Vietnamese communities.
34. Second, the Committee emphasised the undesirability of keeping refugees in reception centres any longer than is absolutely necessary. The Government apices.
35. Third, it observed that the policy of dispersal is now almost universally regarded as mistaker. In its own evidence to the Committee the Government recognised that problems arose as a direct result of this policy as it was applied to refugees from Vietnans. It would be disposed now therefore to try to adopt a different approach if a similar situation arose in the future.
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