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
in each year
exisme
£0.5 million/will be needed from the Home Office for grant aid to
voluntary organisations working with these refugees. Obviously
they will also use the 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.
new arrwalseach
However
at a rate of only 480 per year the burden falling on any one
Moreover
service is likely to be containable. Alse the current package of
for
proposals aims to improve prospects of self sufficiency and thus
enable an early contribution to the economy to be made.