TNAG-0556-FCO40-651-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 27

E.R.

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...on the political/

5.

Confidentiai

advisability at the present time of a German proposal

for a public declaration in support of the UNHCR programme.

13. From what has been said in the preceding paragraphs, it would appeal

clear that it is a far from easy task to give the UNHCR the numerical

indication he seeks; on the one side, we cannot be aware at this stage

of our commitment in respect of the ex-diplomats and others already

here while, on the other side, there is no present indication of how

many of the 100 places promised to the Americans will be taken up and

will be found to qualify for resettlement here. Nor can we judge the

-likely number in the residual 100,000 or more who would (a) opt to leave

South East Asia for resettlement in the UK or (b) would prove acceptable

under the criterion of having some tie or previous connection with this

country. In addition, there is the matter of those refugees in Hong

Kong.

The existing Chinese refugee problem which produces a legal intake

of some 36,000 per year, the pressures put upon relief services by the

arrival of the 4,500 Vietnamese (who have no ethnic element in the

Colony) and the possible political sensitivity their presence there might

produce all clearly indicate that H Government may be obliged, in the

absence of substantive offers of resettlement elsewhere, to take in

the hard core remaining after other offers have been exhausted.

14. It is, therefore, submitted that it would be proper to ask the

Foreign & Commonwealth Secretary to reply to the UNHCR request in the

following terms:

"HM Government has carefully considered the text of your recent

telegram concerning refugees from Vietnam and from Cambodia who

have been granted only temporary admission to countries in South

East Asia and in respect of whom it is desirable to find countries

of durable settlement. You also ask, as a matter of urgency, for

Confidentia!

iplication...

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