TNAG-0558-FCO40-653-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 132

CONFIDENTIAL

RECEIVED

EGISTR. Nɔ.52 -9 JUN1975

TAKK 18/25

The trains

mal90)

draft

Mr Daylily-pleas

B916

COLONIAL SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG

Not bad. hit us with a short

4 June 1975

put thes

suinte

to hand & storing

Cobust.

BY BAG

布政司署

香港下亞畢道

* OUR REF.:

SCR 1/4821/75

來函檔號 Your ReF.:

C.S. 41A

PL O'KEEFFE ESQ CVO

Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department

(25)

F CO

Dear Laurence,

LAST

RE

NEXT

REF.

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG

(201)

Virtually all our communications on the

We

problem of the Vietnamese refugees from the CLARA MAERSK have been by telegram so far. In this letter I hope to fill in some of the gaps, particularly over our chances of resettling them elsewhere. were asked specifically in paragraph 1 of your telegram No. 411 of 21 May for information on the other countries we have approached through their representatives here.

2.

PA

20

1076

As you know, we tackled the representatives of about 20 countries in Hong Kong and we were very grateful for the backing which we got from the F CO for the parallel approaches in some of their capitals. The response so far from those whom we have approached has been reasonably encouraging. The pattern is set out below. But you should be aware that only 340 have actually left Hong Kong for resettlement in third countries.

3.

United States.

The Immigration and Nationality Service team from Guam screened 3,750 refugees last week.

As a result of this trawl, they have given a total of 1,141 conditional approval for entry to the United States "pending verification" of claims about existence of relatives in the United States. These will be considered case by case but the first 55 have already been verified. The Americans hope to begin airlifting this week and will press on with the verification process as fast as possible. Once this first group of about a thousand has been dealt with, the Americans still hope that there will be more liberal rules permitted them, e.g. to take refugees who have been previously identified with the United States Government in Vietnam.

CONFIDENTIAL

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