Mr Court (SEAD)
RESTRICTED
Reference...
cc. p. Excutt for Appl.
(167
Msheci HKD
(or)
POLICY EVALUATION: AID TO INDO CHINESE REFUGEES IN THAILAND.
1.
Your letter of 9 September to Mr Wyatt in Bangkok sought comments on a preliminary draft paper. You will have seen the comments of Mr Trevan of this Department and Miss Barker-Harland in New York.
2. I fear that the draft paper strikes me as a facile and unscientific assessment of a very complex issue, with an unsubstantiated mixture of political, commercial and humanitarian information and judgements. If published, I think it would have an adverse effect on Britain's interests, both in the relevant international organisations and with concerned NGOs and public opinion in the UK. I am certain that Ministers should be consulted before any decision is taken to publish.
3. I would note the following points in particular:
There is a lack of clarity as to the ground which the paper is meant to cover. While the heading is "Indo Chinese refugees in Thailand", references to settlement of refugees in UK and Hong Kong in the text apply not for the most part to refugees from Thailand, but to those coming directly from Vietnam to Hong Kong or from other countries of first asylum.
On the UK role, it is unwise to state or imply that the UK has made a notable contribution in respect of resettlement of Indo Chinese refugees. The UK figure of 20,000 or even the combined figurezaf UK and HK figure of 34,500, (2.4% of the total resettled in other than countries of first asylum) do not look impressive compared to resettlement figures eg for Denmark.
There are many references to solving or reviewing refugee problems in the text, but no indication of the type of measures which might be taken to promote a solution to the existing problem (ie integration, repatriation or resettlement), the political and/or economic difficulties inherent in each course, and the question of who would initiate or monitor the process.
There is also, as Mr Trevan points out, no reference to action towards removal of root causes of refugee flows, which would obviously be a necessary component in a permanent solution of the refugee problem in Thailand/South East Asia.
Rather than offer an extensive re-draft, I will be happy to discuss detailed drafting amendments with you.
4.
5.
I regret that UND were not consulted before this exercise took off, since we have responsibility in the FCO for general policy on refugees. It would be interesting to know how much it has cost in staff, resources, communications etc and what is deemed to have been gained from it.
Proper
S Rogerson (Mrs)
United Nations Department K 153 233 7832
CODE 18-77
6 October 1986
DTOTDIOTED
Page 120Page 121
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