(
CONFIDENTIAL
FROM:
ний
243/12
DATE:
MAY 1988
Cc:
Private Secretary
CO Hum
18 MAY 1-88
Mr Ham, HKD
Thankyou
Thank you?
Hong Kong Department
18 May 1988
PS/Lord Glenarthur
Mr Gillmore
Mr Fell, SEAD
Mr Williams, UND
Mr McLaren
9
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N
أمه من
VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE IN HONG KONG: BRITISH REFUGEE COUNCIL (BRC)
Problem
1. Lord Chitnis, Chairman of the BRC, will call on the Secretary of State at 4.15pm on Thursday 19 May.
Recommendation
2.
I recommend that the Secretary of State let Lord Chitnis do most of the talking. But he could usefully take this opportunity, in a non-committal way, to sound out Lord Chitnis on the likely attitudes of the BRC to screening. SEAD and UND concur.
Background
3. The BRC are in regular contact with the FCO and Home Office over the problem of Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong. Their main concerns have been:
a)
b)
dissatisfaction with the level of offtake by HMG, and in particular with the phasing over two years of our commitment of May 1987 to resettle 468 family
reunion cases;
conditions in the closed centres in Hong Kong: they would like the boat people to have more responsibility for running their lives, and they would prefer the voluntary agencies to play a greater role in managing the centres, rather than the Correctional Services Department;
c) the need to give aid to Vietnam, possibly via the voluntary agencies.
4. More recently Dr Barber, the Director of the BRC (who will accompany Lord Chitnis tomorrow), contacted SEAD seeking confirmation of information they had obtained concerning recommendations by OMELCO members for a change of
CONFIDENTIAL
/policy