FR.
Present:
HKD 243/12
APR 1988
NOTE OF A MEETING HELD AT THE HOME OFFICE ON
TUESDAY 29 MARCH
113 MPR 488
Mr Renton
Mr Flesher
Miss Dale
Miss McAlister
2
23
B
44
Lord Glenarthur
Christopher Hum,
Head of Hong Kong Dept, FCO
David Reddaway, P/S
to Lord Glenarthur
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
Lord Glenarthur had sought a meeting with Mr Renton to discuss the continuing problem of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong and to suggest a package of ideas to increase the quota of refugees accepted by the United Kingdom.
2. Lord Glenarthur said the main problem was that we were unable to secure additional acceptance of refugees by other Western countries based on our commitment of 468. The FCO were under massive pressure to agree to accept more on the basis that our commitment had not been in keeping with either our particular responsibility for Hong Kong or the scale of the problem, which was in essence that departures from the refugee camps were not keeping apace with arrivals. Indeed there were plans to open another closed camp to accommodate the inflow which had increased from a low point of 7,600 in mid 1987 to around 9,700 less than nine months later. Other countries, for example, the United States had made it clear that their rate of acceptance depended very much on ours and that any increase in the United Kingdom acceptance rate would result in a higher US quota. Lord Glenarthur added that Hong Kong was the only place in that region which would take the refugees. An additional problem was that many of the refugees, largely from North Vietnam, were simply economic migrants who did not satisfy the normal criteria for refugees under the UN Convention.
3.
The
Mr Renton wondered whether there had been any progress made with regard to repatriation of refugees to Vietnam. Lord Glenarthur said that progress had not been substantial. British Government had had a series of contacts with the Government in Vietnam through the British Ambassador in Haniso and the Vietnamese Ambassador in London. The Vietnamese were only prepared to contemplate the return of the refugees on case basis. Even on that score they were dragging their feet. Neither were they prepared to talk about conditions for the refugees on their return to Vietnam beyond saying that people must be "appropriately punished for their crime". Lord Glenarthur went on the say that it was now an accepted concensus that the only long term solution was to bring international pressure to