3. Other places of first asylum adopted similar screening measures as part of a Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA)
endorsed at the second ICIR in June 1989. The conference confirmed that those boat people who qualify as refugees should be resettled; whilse those who do not should return
to their country of origin. The effectiveness of the Plan of Action was reviewed by officials in October 1989 and January 1990 at meetings of the Steering Committee of the ICIR. Both meetings broke up when it became apparent that there would be no agreement on arrangements for the repatriation of boat people not classified as refugees, because the Americans were not willing to countenance anything other than voluntary repatriation.
4. The then Minister of State Mr Francis Maude visited
Vietnam in February 1990 and reached an agreement that from May 1990, around 1,000 volunteers a month would be accepted back, a rate of flow sufficient to clear the present camp populations in Hong Kong in little over three years if
extended to non-volunteers. The voluntary programme has made progress, but it has become clear that it cannot
provide a solution by itself.
5. At a regional meeting of the CPA participants in Manila
on 17-18 May 1990, the UK announced a £1 million contribution for activity by British Non Government Organisations in areas in Vietnam from which boat people come. First asylum countries also called on the US and Vietnamese Governments either to agree to the mandatory repatriation of non-refugees, or to provide an interim solution in the form of a holding centre for them on their territory. In a concession resulting from sustained diplomatic pressure, the United States announced at the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference (PMC) in Jakarta on 27-29 July that it was willing to accept the return of non-refugees drawn from a 'grey area' of those who, while not volunteering, would not object. At the same meeting, the European Commission, at our instigation, announced a
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