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262
British Embassy
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Misy slatter (PA)
3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington DC 20008
Telex Domestic USA 89-2370/89-2384
Telex International 64224(WUI)/440015(ITT) Telephone (202) 462-1340
Robert Footman Esq
Hong Kong Dept
FCO
MFD 243
243/5
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
10 JAN 1989
Dear Robert
INL
Your reference
Our reference
Date
21 December 1988
IRAC REPORT OF VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE IN HONG KONG
1. Our telno 2973 summarised the main points in the IRAC report published here recently.
2. I went along to a meeting on 20 December to hear the President of IRAC, Dr Khoa, present his report to a group of those concerned with refugees affairs here.
3. Dr Khoa began with the situation in Thailand and Malaysia, in pretty critical terms. On Hong Kong, he said that on the basis of his visit last month he regarded the screening policy as "a failure". The main deficiencies were: no pre-interview guidance given to the boat people; interviewers biased, asking questions not in the agreed questionnaire; the interview process very slow; and the suspicious fact that the Hong Kong Government's prediction (when introducing the policy) that 10% of arrivals would turn out to be refugees had been borne out exactly in the figures so far.
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