CONFIDENTIAL
SECRETARY OF STATE'S MEETING WITH GENSCHER, 12 APRIL
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
Essential Facts
General
1.
first
9,100 Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong awaiting
resettlement; the largest number of any place of
asylum in South East Asia. They are
are spending increasingly
long periods in Hong Kong because of diminishing
resettlement prospects: over
over 60% have been there more than 3
years.
Recent Action by HMG
2.
The Governments
the
response in
in September; to-SCORRI's report "Refugees and Asylum with Special Reference
Vietnamese" announced inter alia
(i) HMG's decision to accept for resettlement some 500 refugees, mostly from Hong Kong, who have
relatives in the UK but who would normally
fall outside the Home Office's criteria for
family reunion cases;
resettlement
(ii) that, depending on the willingness shown by
other
countries to respond to
Hong Kong's needs, HMG are
to prepared
consider accepting further limited numbers
The Hong Kong Government
absorb limited
from Hong Kong.
would also be prepared to numbers from the camps. (Hong Kong agreed on. 6 February to absorb up to 250 more refugees
from the Hong Kong camps. )
CONFIDENTIAL
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