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the process has still not been brought formally to an end; applications for consideration under the SCORRI criteria are still continuing to this day.
4.
Mr Barber is to have a round of meetings with the Home Office, including with Mr Waddington. He intends to suggest the following: the agencies, UNHCR, the Hong Kong Government, and the Home Office should unite to draw up a full list of all those who have applied for resettlement under the SCORRI criteria. There would then be a joint decision on priorities, based on closeness of relationship, time spent in camps, etc, and Mr Barber hoped some commitment from the Home Office to set a tempo for continued resettlement at, say, 20 a month. He asked whether the FCO view was that this would be successful. I said that I thought not. He sought my advice on arguments which were more likely to appeal to the Home Office. Without playing on the differing priorities of the FCO and the Home office, I explained that there was strong political pressure bearing on the Home Office to limit the overall numbers of refugees accepted for resettlement in the UK. The aim should therefore be hot to try to bully the Home Office into accepting Mr Barber's view that they had a binding commitment to accept larger, practically open-ended, numbers under the SCORRI extended criteria. Rather, it would be a question of seeking a separate commitment from the Home Office to take a further, clearly limited number of refugees from the camps. I explained the fundamental FCO goal of relieving, and eventually overcoming altogether, the burden of refugees placed on Hong Kong in particular and countries elsewhere in the region. For the time being, at least, it appeared essential that resettlement continue as one part of the search for a solution. This would remain at the centre of our approach, and it was for the relevant committees to set these priorities against other factors which have a strong influence on the UK's ability to take refugees For resettlement. Mr Barber took these points, but resolved to Follow the course he had set himself. If it came to it, he could foresee court cases brought by individual families on the grounds that SCORRI was a clear commitment to resettlement in the UK and that HMG by not accepting them were reneging on this commitment.
5.
The atmosphere at the lunch was good. Mr Barber is an intelligent and informed thinker on the broader issues associated - with refugees. He is fully aware that his line on resettlement under SCORRI will not endear him to the Government and he certainly does not regard it as anything like a full solution in itself.
20 October 1986
Robert Cart
RV Court
P.S.
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Love
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