BY BAG
布政司署
CONFIDENTIAL
香港下亞厘 畢道
本署檔號 OUR REF: SRD 703/7/C.
RECEIVE!
來函檔號 Your ReF:
Mr. C.E. Leeks,
Hong Kong Department,
DES
INDE
AKU JA8/12
-GISTRY
8 OCT 1986
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
London,
SW1A 2AH.
Dear Clinton,
RIVISTAY
Action faken
Security Branch, 6/F,
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
22 September 1986.
Copied to COND
+PEAS
реа
свежо.
UNHCR Executive Committee (EXCOM) Meeting: October 1986:
Resettlement of Vietnamese Refugees in Hong Kong
Thank you for your letter of 28 August which awaited my return from leave. I am also grateful for the report from Delia Walker on her discussions with Hansson and Cooper on which you sought my views.
As always, I find Cooper's views breathtaking!
The problem of North Vietnamese Refugees
During my
Cooper is understating the situation when he says that North Vietnamese refugees tend to go mainly to Hong Kong. visit to the other asylum countries I was unable to find any North Vietnamese there. I suspect that a small number from the North do reach these first asylum countries, but it is in everyone's interests to pass them off as Vietnamese from the South. Effectively, Hong Kong is the only asylum country to receive North Vietnamese refugees for resettlement (China accepts them for local integration).
You are correct in saying that the US has always been care- ful with refugees from the North the exception has been ethnic Chinese. In practical terms, anyway, refugees from the North are much less likely to meet the US resettlement criteria and so, apart from the ethnic Chinese, very few have been accepted by the US. We have also heard (and reported to you) that INS is proposing a much stricter line with refugees from the North. But since the US are finding it more difficult to obtain refugees here to meet their criteria, the new INS ruling (if it is implemented) will make little material difference here.
To attribute the fears which we have at being left with a residual refugee population to the INS proposal in ingenuous. We have had these fears for some time, as you know. We are concerned that we will be left with a number of unresettleable refugees. But we have always been careful to avoid quoting any numbers because of the local reaction (which would be critical) and because we find that those whom we consider unresettleable are accepted by some countries. Nevertheless we do expect that a time will come when the international community will decide that the Vietnamese refugee problem in Hong Kong has been "solved". At that time, we anticipate that there will be a number of refugees left here. We shall then have to consider how we deal with them.
Hansson's views on the recent decisions taken by the Thai
There is no comparison between the Thai
Government are confused.
CONFIDENTIAL
/decision