WX/MN
LOOSE MINUTE
D/SG(SH)2/15/1B
& Aug 86
Sec (0) (C)
C21
GF3
G24
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MANAGEMENT-IN-CONFIDENCE
17.00 1986 FILE
Copy to: SD/DGA.13
ACG(3H)
CONG
TREATMENT OF VEETNAESE REFUGEES AT BIH HONG KONG
1. During a recent visit to Hong Kong CIVSEC and the staff at the BMH raised a problem on which they would like advice.
Doctors
2. It concerns the treatment given to Vietnamese refugees at the BMH. from the hospital visit the Vietnamese refugee camps on the islands off Hong Kong and provide medical treatment there. I do not think anyone would quarrel with this practice. The need is great, the experience gained is invaluable to the doctors and if we were questioned about it, it could be defended on humanitarian grounds.
3.
Occasionally the doctors discover cases which cannot be treated in these camps and are interesting from a medical point of view. They have, for under- standable reasons, been bringing them back to the BI for treatment. Normally
one or two refugees are treated each week.
A.
The grounds for concern are twofold;
a. payment for the cost of treatment provided. The refugees are non-entitled patients and, strictly speaking, the full cost of treatment should be met by someone. For reasons I explain later it is not possible to approach the 117 and no approach has been made to any of the Refugee Telier Organisations. The current outstanding bill stands at about £140%. He would, of course agree, that these costs should be written off on humanitarian grounds (and I think there is a good case for doing so). I do not think it would be sensible to ask the Refugee Relief Organisations to meet these bills because their prior approval was not, I understand, sought and because it will look as if MOD is trying to cash in on the misery of the refugees.
5.
of greater concern is the likely reaction of the HKG if they discovered what was going on. MOD would be vulnerable on two counts. One, as I under- stand the position, the HKG do not accept responsibility for the well being or future of the Vietnamese refugees, which they see as a problem to be faced by the whole world and not by them alone. They therefore refuse refugees entry into Hong Kong, and provide the minimum support necessary in the camps. The formal approval of the HKG to land the refugees and treat them at BMH has not, I understand, been sought (and for this reason the HKG cannot be a
asked to pay the bills; even if they were, they would be unlikely to do so), If the IKO discovered that refugees were, in fact, being landed and decided to make an issue of it, it could be embarrassing and difficult to explain the
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