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Background and Arqument
3. The first flight under the second phase of the Orderly
Repatriation Programme (ORP II) on 19 June went fairly smoothly. Press reporting was muted and factual.
Parliamentary reaction has been minimal. The Vietnamese were
pleased with the arrangements. The way is therefore clear for
further flights.
4.
The Vietnamese require one month's notice of ORP flights to
allow time for internal clearance with the local authorities.
Hong Kong's original suggestion of 23 or 24 July for the next
ORP flight clashes with a revised UNHCR schedule for voluntary flights, which Hong Kong do not wish to disturb. They have suggested alternative dates in the first week of August. have reported that Vietnamese elections on 19 July probably preclude a flight before the first week of August. The first
convenient date for both ourselves and the Vietnamese thus
appears to be 4 August.
Hanoi
5. I understand that Mr Goodlad intends to be away from the
office on holiday between 25 July and 23 August. AS ORP flights remain potentially sensitive, in terms of handling possible press and public criticism if things go wrong, Mr Goodlad might prefer to postpone the next ORP flight until he is back in the office at the end of August. (He cancelled his plans to visit Cambodia in order to be in London on 19 June.) On the other hand, this time round, the flight will not be the
first of a new phase of repatriation and should be fairly
routine; interest in ORP flights is waning both in Hong Kong
and internationally; Parliament is in recess, and, more importantly, delay until late August will undermine the message to the screened-out camp population in Hong Kong that we mean business. On balance, therefore, I think we should go ahead
with a flight in early August.
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