Pillar Point.
£2 million in support of UNHCR's operation in Hong Kong and over £4 million for emergency accommodation, including tents and huts.
Have also announced our readiness to contribute £5 million towards costs of Regional Processing Centre outside Hong Kong to which all refugees from Hong Kong and region could be transferred quickly while they await resettlement.
On resettlement front, have undertaken this year to accept 2,000 more refugees from Hong Kong over next 3 years.
At Geneva Conference made clear in plain terms that without repatriation Hong Kong would simply be unable to maintain policy of first asylum indefinitely.
Outcome of Conference on this point was not unhelpful. Secured general recognition of fact that all those boat people who do not qualify as refugees must find their future in Vietnam. Report of Select Committee on Foreign Affairs recognised that it is intolerable for those who do not qualify as refugees to have to spend years in camps. Further Steering Group meeting due in October to review progress in implementing Comprehensive Plan of Action.
- Some progress on voluntary repatriation made. But numbers very small in relation to total. Now must look for real results at October meetings to get boat people returning to Vietnam in large numbers.
BRITAIN'S RELATIONS WITH HONG KONG
- As mark of importance we attach to Hong Kong, post of Senior British Trade Commissioner recently upgraded to Ambassadorial rank. Planning already in hand to establish large British Consulate-General in Hong Kong after 1997. Determined to maintain strong diplomatic, economic and cultural links with Hong Kong after 1997.
Cathay Pacific recently ordered ten A330 Airbus aircraft, with option to buy ten more. Total order would be worth £1.3 billion. Delivery to start in mid-1990's. This is an important measure of this British managed Company's confidence in, and commitment to, the future of Hong Kong.
Contact: Rosalind Marsden, HKD (270 2650)
September 1989