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Vietnamese Boat People
At his meeting with the Home Secretary this afternoon the Secretary of State raised the question of Vietnamese Boat People and spoke as in the brief you provided. He said that the arrival rate had slowed right down and that the way now seemed to be clear to put forward a joint proposal on resettlement.
The Home Secretary said that he thought he could agree to the figure of 1,000, the question was the time over which it would be resettled. The Secretary of State had mentioned
a rate of 40 a month. The Home Secretary's understanding was that we had been talking of about 1000 over 2 years, ie. a rate of about 33 a month. More work was needed on the details.
Subject to agreement on that he was content to put forward a joint minute to the Prime Minister.
even
Mr Renton said that one of his main concerns about resettlement of Vietnamese was the very poor standard of English language ability among the Vietnamese community here, those who had been here for several years . This was bound to be a factor in the high level of Vietnamese unemployment. He was keen therefore that Hong Kong should do as much as it could to improve training in particular English language training.
The Secretary of State said that he would look at this point. We had just made a further £1 million available to UNHCR for their programme with the Vietnamese refugees. Hong Kong did have a training programme and were also addressing the question of schooling for Vietnamese children. We would let the Home Office have details on this question. We would also pass on Mr Renton's point to those concerned in Hong Kong.
4 October 1988
CC:
PS/Lord Glenarthur Mr Gillmore
Mr McLaren
Mr Colvin, SEAD
(R N Peirce)
CONFIDENTIAL