1
ARPAIG
Mr McLaren
PS/Lord Glenarthur
Private Secretary
CONFIDENTIAL
VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE IN HONG KONG
Problem
FROM:
CO Hum
Hong Kong Department
DATE:
CC:
27 April 1988
PS/Mr Eggar
Mr Gillmore
Mr Adams, SEAD
Mr Williams, UND
Mr Fifoot, Legal Advisers
1. To bring to Ministers' attention the deterioration of the problem of Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong; and to seek their preliminary views on a possible new policy to deal with the crisis.
Recommendation
2. The Hong Kong Government believe that the continuation of the present policy has become untenable and have set out their views on the way forward. I recommend that we now explore with Hong Kong the elements of a new policy which would involve the screening of new arrivals to establish whether they meet the recognised criteria to be treated as refugees. It would be made clear that Ministers would wish to be consulted formally once the new approach had been
elaborated in greater detail. I submit a draft telegram on these
lines.
A
Background
3.
The serious deterioration in the situation is graphically
described in paras 1-8 of Hong Kong telno 1539. In essence, the
main features of the present crisis are:
a four-fold increase in arrivals so far this year over the
CONFIDENTIAL