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that would not otherwise have been offered:
however few further responses to our present campaign are likely to materialise.
(b) As regards
time": the
must take
continuing
"all the circumstances at the
principal circumstance which we
into account is the need for
action to resolve
international
Hong Kong's refugee problem. Resettlement in
the West is the only practicable form this
action can take at present. The Home Office
may argue that a further
intake would
be 2 don't hund
difficult to present to Parliament and the his a genuine
public. We should counter this by pointing
out that, to the extent that Parliamentary
opinion is exercised about
UK of Vietnamese
and public
resettlement
in
the
refugees, it is sympathetic to their plight and conscious of the need to help them. The
Home Office may argue that Vietnamese
refugees should no longer be given any
preferential treatement in terms of UK immigration policy. We should point out that the refugees in Hong Kong are in a special category, in view of our responsibility for Hong Kong as a dependent territory.
the point that
argument.
✓
As well as this, we should make
any gap between the end of the "family reunion intake and the start
of a
further programme is likely to be perceived by other resettlement countries (and Hong Kong) as evidence of the UK's lack of will; and that this will make it very much
harder
to renew
of their
for
commitments
as
us later to
reach they
them persuade
the end
resettlement programmes in late 1986 and early
1987.
their
current
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