NÖV.25 196 09:49 GMT HO 2 LUNAR HOUSE
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PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS FOR WRITTEN ANSWER ON MONDAY 24 NOVEMBER 1986
P.02 839-24 17
51. Mr David Alton (Liverpool, Mossley Hill);
52.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is Her Majesty's Government 'a policy towards Vietnamese boat people in closed camps in Hong Kong who hav elatives in the United Kingdom; and how many are expected toer the United Kingdom in the last quarter of the current year.
To ask the Secretary of
Mr David Alton (Liverpool, Mossley Hill):
State for the Home Department, how many Vietnamese boat people [currently] resident in closed camps in Hong Kong were allowed to settle in the United Kingdom in each of the last five years.
DRAFT REPLY
Vietnamese refugees are resettled both under the family reunion policy, which provides for the spouse and minor children to join refugees already here, and und.. the United Nation's Rescues at Sea Resettlement Offers (RASKO) Scheme. In addition, in September 1985, we announced, in response to the report of the Select Committee on Race Relations and immigration on Vietnamese refugees, that we would resettle some 500 refugees in Hong Kong who had relatives in the United Kingdom and who fell outside the criteria for family reunion. Over the last twelve months, about 460 refugees have been A smal. resettled on this basis and a further 13 are under consideration. number of places in Hong Kong and a further 60 elsewhere in South East Asia remain but I understand that the refugee agencies are currently not putting forward further applications under these commitments until future policy has beer determined. With the conclusion of our commitment to the Seleot Committee, we are now considering future policy towards the protem of
In the meantime, our Vietnamese refugees in South East Asia as a whole. commitment to RASRO and family reunion contining and 27 people have been accepted under these schemes in the last two months.
The number of those rosettled over the last five years are as follows: