immigration officials.
Most of the more skilled refugees have,
of course, left Hong Kong some time ago so it would be difficult
and would give the wrong signals to go further towards an
exclusively skills based package at this stage.
11. We have in the past had problems with resettling boat people
here and those problems are not going to disappear entirely; we
anticipate for example that some housing agencies will be hard
pressed to find accommodation for the new intake. However with
initial selection of refugees on the basis proposed, we think
that an expansion of existing language training programmes
provided in camps in Hong Kong and, after arrival in the UK, good
linkages into the new Employment Training Programme (which
provides individual assessments and training programmes to
enhance the employment and self employment prospects of those
using it) can reduce previous difficulties.
12. In terms of resources we estimate that up to an additional
£0.5 million each year will be needed from the Home Office for
grant aid to voluntary organisations working with these refugees.
Obviously they will also use the existing statutory services on
the basis of need but actual refugee uptake of services is not
monitored by either service providers or the Home Office. We
obtain only very generalised pictures of the circumstances of
refugees in this country from voluntary organisations working
with them. However at a rate of only 480 new arrivals per year
the burden falling on any one service is likely to be
containable.
Moreover the current package of proposals aims to
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