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CODE 18-77
ROZACZ
Mr Hum
Hum
CONFIDENTIAL
Artin Güthen.
Guli
си
-Reference...
HUD 243/8
76
VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE IN HONG KONG: POSSIBLE WAY AHEAD
1.
I attended the 7-8 October ICG meeting in Ottawa, which will be reported in detail separately. This minute considers the two options set out in Hong Kong telno 1277 in the context of the ICG discussions.
The two options
Briefly, Hong Kong's thinking on new initiatives has so far focussed on
2.
(a) detention of all arrivals from a current date without
access to resettlement processing; and
(b)
screening followed by indefinite detention of those screened out as illegal immigrants pending repatriation.
The ICG Meeting
3.
The main focus of the meeting was the recent developments in Thailand, in particular the question of push-offs. This had clearly concentrated minds. The meeting agreed a guidance package which covers a range of actions which participants will consider further on an individual basis. For Hong Kong the main points to emerge in the meeting were
(a) On resettlement: Australia, Canada and the US are all under pressure to resettle from a number of different sources. Australia is reviewing its immigration policy: current draft recommendations are for a move from accepting those who do not meet refugee criteria to increasing intakes for migration and family reunion; and for a significant reduction of 1,500 next year of the current allocation of 6,000 for refugees from Indo-China. The US is coming under severe financial constraints and envisages a reduction in offtake from Indo-China in 1989 from 29,500,
Canada is under great pressure as
significant
(b)
a place of first asylum it had 34,000 claimants for asylum in 1987 and expects 70,000 such claimants this year.
On Thailand there was a lengthy discussion on push offs. The overall conclusion was that some of those who were attempting to arrive were indeed refugees and that these should be offered asylum. In practical terms this meant permitting all would be arrivals to land to enable genuine refugees to be identified.
CONFIDENTIAL