CONFIDENTIAL
Similiar talks between Malaysia and Vietnam ended in agreement on
voluntary returns. In earlier talks between UNHCR and the
Vietnamese, UNHCR pressed the .etnamese to accept the return of all non-refugees.
4. We judge the Vietnamese insistence on voluntary returns to be essentially tactical. If some sort of financial contribution is
forthcoming to assist reintegration
and the Vietnamese were
careful not to ask for wider development aid - it should be possible to move towards an arrangement permitting the return of more substantial numbers of boat people.
5.
But there will be difficult practical problems to overcome. These include the need to involve UNHCR as the channel for financial assistance, the supervisor of a repatriation programme and the monitor of the conditions in which boat people return. In principle UNHCR are ready to play that role: but their approach is
bureaucratic and their inclination will be to favour cumbersome
multilateral arrangements also covering boat people in other places of first asylum.
6.
*
We hope that the next round of talks will be at the end of
September/early October If a comprehensive repatriation programme can be drawn up for the return of substantial numbers of boat people Ministers have agreed that we should be ready in principle to
contribute to a UNHCR programme providing modest assistance to
returnees and their immediate communities. Detailed proposals for an assistance programme have not yet been determined.
UNHCR and the 16 June policy
involvement
A draft
7. The Hong Kong Government are keen to secure UNHCR's in and blessing for the screening and appeals procedures. document recording UNHCR and the Hong Kong Government's understanding of the present position has been prepared, incorporating the Hong Kong Government's intentions to meet UNHCR
concerns on conditions in the camps and UNHCR's commitment to
provide advice on screening matters.
CONFIDENTIAL