TNAG-0557-FCO40-652-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 14

Gta

HKIOD

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

28 May 1975

I attach a letter from Dennis Canavan, M.P., about the admission of Vietnamese refugees to this country. Mr. Canavan's constituent raises the question of the Hong Kong Government's inability to accept more than a certain number of refugees and a draft answer to that point is as follows:-

"As you probably know, Hong Kong are already giving temporary accommodation in special reception centres to nearly 4,000 Vietnamese refugees and are providing them with medical attention and other essential services. This has exhausted the capacity of Hong Kong to accept refugees for the present; and, with its own demographic and social problems, the Colony cannot be expected to assume this burden permanently, particularly in view of the continuing necessity to accept upwards of 30,000 immigrants every year from China. Some

twenty governments are considering approaches

which we and the Hong Kong Government have made about resettlement."

(J.D.F. Holt)

G.H. Phillips, Esq.,

Private Secretary to the Secretary of State,

Home Office,

London S.W.1.

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