CONFIDENTIAL
SECRETARY OF STATE'S MEETING WITH GENSCHER, 12 APRIL
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
Essential Facts
General
1.
of
first
9,100 Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong awaiting
resettlement; the
number largest
any place of asylum in South East Asia. They are spending increasingly
periods long
in Hong Kong because of diminishing
resettlement prospects: over 60% have been there more than 3
years.
Recent Action by HMG
2.
Government's The
response
in
September
to SCORRI's
to the
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
family reunion cases;
for
(ii) that, depending on the willingness shown by
other resettlement
countries to
respond
to
Hong
Kong's
needs, HMG are
prepared
to
consider
accepting
further
limited
from Hong Kong.
The Hong
Kong
numbers
Government
would also
be
prepared
to
absorb
limited
numbers from the camps. (Hong Kong agreed on
6 February to absorb up to 250
to 250 more refugees
from the Hong Kong camps.)
CONFIDENTIAL,