E.R.
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NOTE OF A MEETING HELD ON 28 OCTOBER 1986
ساعت
زيت
فلا اح
MEETING WITH THE UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES
Present:
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Mr Hyde
Home Secretary Mr Waddingten
Mr R Morris
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Monsieur Pierre Hocke Mr Olav Volfing Mr P Adams Miss Irene Khan
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
Mr McDowall
Mr Boys Smith
- 2 DEC 1986
FICER
PA
Taken
Mr Hocke, responding to the Home Secretary's welcome, said that since coming into office as UN High Commissioner he had perceived how important it was to focus on the causes behind the pressures for refugees to seek asylum in Europe. Many of the solutions to present problems involved political decisions by the states concerned, and he wished to learn how the UK felt. But despite these pressures on developed countries, the great majority of refugees remained in the Third World. It was important to ensure that Third World receiving countries remained as welcoming to refugees as they had been in the past; there were signs that some were becoming less welcoming. believed a global approach had to be developed if solutions wore to be found. There were for example increasing pressures from those who moved because of the fear of violence, even though they might not fall under the definition in the UN Convention. Attention needed to be focussed on the possibility for voluntary repatriation, local integration or the resettlement of those few who could never return. Ideas of this kind could no longer be adequately examined just between the originating and receiving countries; instead Governments generally needed to consider them, and through them establish the political will to help create conditions where people could return to the places they had originally come from. Ensuring peaceful conditions might be the only way to secure this outcome. That again underlined, in his view, the importance of developing a global approach and a shared understanding of solutions.
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The Home Secretary commented that he found M Hocke's approach interesting. The EC Working Group established as result of the meeting of EC Interior Ministers on 20 October would need to remain in touch with the UNHCR. The meeting had shown that different member countries had different approaches to refugee questions, but all supported the definition in the UN Convention and wanted to honour it. He and other EC Ministers were however concerned about the way refugee problems seemed to be spilling over into other areas, and he did not think there was any future in seeking to expand this definition. He agreed problems needed to be looked at globally. For example, just as developed countries should act humanely so countries of origin had a responsibility to act in a way which did not encourage
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