valy 5
CONFIDENTIAL
3.
we
Most
take
To maximise the effect of our decision and Hong Kong's,
are pressing other resettlement countries to
additional refugees from Hong Kong.
have been
sympathetic to our request, but It
our request, but It is too early yet to know how many will respond with concrete offers of resettlement
and Sweden (100) Finland (70), the Netherlands (80) and New Zealand (10) have
offered specific increases. The US, which resettles more
Indo-Chinese refugees than any
than any other country,
currently
accepting refugees at an annual rate of some 1,800, 200 more than the previous year's ceiling. Several other countries (including Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Greece) are likely to respond favourably.
places; So far Australia (200 refugees), Canada (50),
Action by Hong Kong
4.
decision Hong Kong's
refugees is
is
(para 2(ii)) to absorb more
courageous given their difficulties in being seen to give Vietnamese refugees a better deal than illegal immigrants from China, many of whom have far closer family
Chinamany and cultural ties with Hong Kong. The figure of 250, which
is on top of
of the
the 14,500 displaced Indo-Chinese they have also absorbed, is high compared with the achievements of
seen in terms many resettlement countries, especially when
of the severe
The
the longest
population pressures in Hong Kong.
refugees being
being resettled will be drawn from stayers (over 6 years) in the Hong Kong camps, and will thus be among those who have proved hardest to resettle
elsewhere.
German Position
the
4 FRG has accepted 2,400 Vietnamese refugees from Hong
Comps Kong since 1975, more than any other European country except
but- the UK,
Most were resettled in 1979/80: recently it has
Since le accepted very fewĮ (ŷne\_\ in 1984, 45 in 1985), This drop ie the result of an agreement în 1982 between the Federal and
agleed
Länder
to Governments
accept only
when
those
Indo-Chinese
CONFIDENTIAL