THE PRIME MINISTER
RY MON)
DROIT
10 DOWNING STREET
LONDON SWIA 2AA
21 October 1987
མ་ འ(:༣^བཅབ་
า
Jean Is For.
it.
Thank you for your letter of 30 September about Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong.
It was
The British Government are well aware of the strength of public feeling in Hong Kong about the problem, and we are sympathetic to the plight of the refugees themselves. for these reasons that we decided in May to accept a further 468 Vietnamese refugees from camps in Hong Kong for resettlement in the United Kingdom, and launched a renewed diplomatic campaign to press other resettlement countries to follow our example.
increase in the number of
As
I note what you say about the refugees in Hong Kong and the disappointing rate of
This is a matter of resettlement over the past year.
as it is to you. We have considerable concern to us, therefore stepped up our efforts to find a durable solution to the problem in parallel with our resettlement efforts. you know, both the British and the Hong Kong Governments are actively discussing these issues with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the main resettlement countries. I believe that these contacts are helping to increase international aware
problem of arrivals in Hong
whose departure from Vietn economic considerations.
•
s of the need to tackle the and elsewhere of people
is essentially motivated by
in addition, our Ambassador in