HOME OFFICE
Lunar House, Wellesley Road, CROYDON CR9 2BY
Our reference: IMG/86 72/1126/3
Your reference: [AIDABS]
CO Hum Esq
Hong Kong Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Whitehall
LONDON
SW1A 2AH
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Thank you for your letter of 16 July about the possibility of further action to help relieve the problem of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. As the programme to admit a further 500 under the relaxed family reunion criteria draws to its completion, we have, like you, begun to consider whether there are grounds for admitting "further limited numbers" of Vietnamese from Hong Kong in accordance with paragraph 29 of the Government's response to SCORRI.
It is good that your efforts to persuade other countries to make extra settlement places available has met with considerable success, and I can understand why you think it unlikely that the countries concerned would repeat this without a further move by either the United Kingdom or Hong Kong. The question of a further intake, though, must also depend on both domestic political considerations and the situation in Hong Kong.
In this context the apparent failure of recent resettlement programmes to produce a significant sustainable reduction of refugees in Hong Kong is very disappointing. You refer to a drop in the population of the camps from 10,000 last September to 8,200 at the beginning of July, but UNHCR now fear that the 6-8,000 figure forecast for the end of the year will rise to 10,000. You will no doubt have seen Moss's telex of 8 July (UKMIS Geneva, Telno 379) giving this forecast. It is particularly worrying that the figure is apparently rising despite 1986 being an exceptionally good year for resettlement from Hong Kong. With the rate of arrivals in Hong Kong now apparently increasing, and a likely lower rate of resettlement next year, it looks as if the population in the camps could start to increase again before long.