Refugee Action
Registered Office: The Offices,
The Cedars, Oakwood,
Derby DE2 4FY.
Tel. 0332 - 833310
Chairman: Lord Chitnis
Director: Julia Meiklejohn
Dear ken,
Clinton Leeks
199
April 22, 1986
please reply to:
193
Thank you for your letter of Aprith since it gives me a chance to clear up a few misunderstanding regarding the nature of the current family reunion programme from South East Asia Camps. I am sorry that because you had no accompanying letter with the two notes on our family reunion work you thought that they were documents for general circulation. They are internal working documents which I thought it would be useful for you to see, given your role in trying to encourage settlement from Hong Kong. The problems outlined have to do with our day-to-day work and the documents are not academic theses. I will copy this note to the same people who received yours, but would not want this to be seen as my normal procedure.
I will first set out my understanding of the current expanded family reunion programme from South East Asian Camps.
1) The programme is the result of a request made by the voluntary agencies under the umbrella of the British Refugee Council (of which Refugee Action is an executive member). The initiative did not come from HMG.
2) The reply to this request was not given until the Home Affairs Committee Report had backed our request.
3) The response clearly indicated that the relatives in the UK must be willing for the family to join them. B1 must accept their application and the relatives in Hong Kong must wish to come. 4) The programme is not just for relatives in Hong Kong, but is also for people in other countries of asylum in South-East Asia. 5)In any family reunion programme in which we are involved we (Refugee Action) act as sponsors with the family. We consider that we thereby take considerable financial and moral responsibility for the settlement of that family. We sometimes get some, though not all, of our resources for this work from HMG and receive no help from Central Government on housing
The
Now I shall reply to some of your specific points, in light of the above. First, no definitive list exists (see point 3). There is information in our files regarding previously rejected cases, families here have knowledge, B1 have files and you have a lists. None are definitive. suggestion, on page 2 of your letter, that Refugee Action is acting on its own amazes me. We have written to all the families concerned in the UK and do not put forward names until we have received a reply as we ought given the wording of the Government's acceptance of this programme. Given time and resources (which are not yet available but may be
in the future) we will see if the lists from Hong Kong can be
A Registered Charity No 283660
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111 24311
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
30 APR 1986
A Member of the British Refugee Cound!!
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