CONFIDENTIAL

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

4.

(a)

In para 6(c) I I would query the use of "placidly" without qualification, and would

suggest the addition of "generally" before "accepted".

Para 7 third sentence is incorrect: in 1979 the vast majority of arrivals were ethnic Chinese from north Vietnam.

the following sentence (and in para 8, fifth sentence), since the proportion of northerners has greatly fluctuated every year since 1980, I would suggest "significant" in place of "increasing".

In para 8 third sentence "11000" should now more accurately read "9500" and "about" should read "over". The closed centres are also no longer really "new". In the fourth sentence I think that the phrase in brackets should be replaced altogether with "until 1986".

hard to

The sixth and seventh sentences of para 8 omit an extra important factor:

Northern Vietnamese are resettle because the largest resettler (the US) will not recognise their refugee status under the terms of the US Immigration and Naturalisation Act, under which each individual's eligibility for refugee status and thus inclusion in the US refugee programme is determined. Northern Vietnamese are considered to be economic migrants rather than refugees largely because the US refugee criteria for Indochina are couched in terms of either the applicant's links with the South Vietnamese government or

forces pre-1985, or his membership of

of an identifiable and persecuted minority - eg as a Buddhist priest, or an ethnic Chinese. This leads us into the absurd position described in the seventh sentence: the longer one has been in communist Vietnam, the poorer one's chances of acceptance as a refugee by the USA. I do not think that the Americans apply this "length of residence" criterion to asylum-seekers from other communist regimes. It might be worthwhile including reference to the fact that these are specifically US (and rather illogical) criteria in your

US

para 8.

Appendix B:

Last sentence of para 1: probably not, in fact,

fact, since at least the Americans have criteria which specifically do distinguish between such groups (see para 3(g) above).

(b)

Para 2 third conclusion.

(c)

In

(a)

sentence:

HKG files support exactly this

"Commission"

should be

3 second

sentence

para "Commissioner".

In para 5 the missing date should (I think) be 1981.

CONFIDENTIAL

Share This Page