Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
Mr NJ French
Security Branch
6th Floor Main & East Wing HKN
Central Government Offices
Lower Albert Road
HONG KONG
RECEIV
Telephone 01- 270 2652
24317
Your reference
Our reference
Date 14 July 1988
Dear Mr French
INDE
14 JUL 1988
FICER
oms
RESETTLEMENT OF VIETNAMESE LAND REFUGEES (VNLR) IN THAILAND
Please find enclosed a copy of a letter from Mr Boegli, the Head of the Red Cross International Committee Delegation in Thailand to Mr Tonkin, British Ambassador to Thailand. The letter asks for special consideration to be given to the cases of various Vietnamese land refugees, five of whom have family links in Hong Kong. The details of these five are enclosed.
As the letter explains we are now in the middle of a limited, probably three-month, period during which the Royal Thai Government has agreed that the VNLR will be available for resettlement. After this, it seems, they will not.
I would be grateful if you could look into these five cases to establish whether you would be prepared to accept them. I do not know whether you have any discretion in this sort of case, and I well appreciate the constraints you are operating under, but the relationship between the refugees and their
'sponsors' seems to be quite close in some cases (varying from cousin to brother and to mother). Could you let me know the outcome of your consideration as soon as it is available since we should try to get back to Mr Tonkin in time for him to contact Mr Baegli before the three month period is over.
Your ever,
Judith Slater
copied to
Mr. Millett UND
Tabith
JUDITH SLATER (MISS)
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