HIT 3/13 RECEIV REGISTRY
- 2 DEC 1986
ACER
PA
MEETING WI
RE
KY
Acuon Taken
mek
I P HOCKE
CONFIDENTIAL
UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: 29 OCTOBER
243/13
Oh Layeler
du dw Barton
све при
Present
Mr Williams, UND
Mrs Rogerson, UND
M. Hocké, UN High Commissioner
for Refugees
Mr Adams, UNHCR
Mr Volfing, UNHCR
Miss Khan, UNHCR
After the exchanges of views with Departments M. Hocké asked for
a few minutes to discuss recent developments on asylum seekers.
Asylum Seekers
2. M Hocké referred to recent consultative meetings and for pressures from a number of countries especially FRG and Denmark for action. There had seemed to be consensus for a further meeting at Ministerial level, hence his cable via UNHCR representatives in capitals. This had been a mistake on two fronts. First, attitudes to a Ministerial meeting were not as positive as he had been led to believe; second, UNHCR should not have appeared to be bypassing missions in Geneva. However, the idea had been usefully followed up
in discussions at EXCOM.
3. The events of August and September had showed that events could overtake the process of consultation. The problems of Tamils and Iranians could only be solved by governments and UNHCR round a table; the alternative was buck passing across frontiers. There was a need to take stock and know how governments felt and how they wanted to proceed. He hoped this exchange would start on 3 November. There was a need for the Working Group to continue, but
it was
a technical group and progress was also needed outside it. He envisaged a meeting in the first half of December, of officials from capitals, possibly followed by a second official meeting in February, which would seek to define objectives and consider
U45ABM
CONFIDENTIAL