4. The International Conference on Indo-Chinese refugees
will be held in Geneva on 13-14 June. Its aim is to find
a comprehensive solution to the problem. We have a strong interest in ensuring that it is a success. We expect it
to endorse a Comprehensive Plan of Action involving:
screening of all arrivals to determine whether they
qualify as refugees, or whether they are simply "economic migrants";
5.
the return to Vietnam of those in the latter
category;
resettlement over a period of years of those with
refugee status.
Hong Kong has been screening arrivals since June 1988.
a slow process, but experience so far shows that the
vast majority of those now leaving Vietnam are not refugees. This means that the problem of refugees who are eligible for resettlement is now at least relatively containable. There are about 14,500 of these in Hong Kong (almost all of whom arrived before screening was introduced), and 55,000 in the region as a whole. The problem of non-refugees or "economic migrants" is larger, and increasing fast; they are not eligible for resettlement and they will have to be
repatriated to Vietnam. We look to the Geneva Conference
to produce progress on both these problems. Repatriation
of non-refugees is vital, to ensure that resettlement of
those who do qualify does not act as a stimulus for further departures. I shall be circulating a paper for OD shortly on the handling of both at the conference. The purpose of this minute is to address the limited question of resettling the refugees.
6. The major resettlement countries have indicated that
they are prepared to take up to 90% of all the refugees in the region. The United States have pledged to take 22,000
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