TNAG-0587-FCO40-720-Aid-from-UK-for-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 143

布政司署

ONFIDENTIAL

GOVERNMENT

पिए

COLONIAL SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT ROAD

Spelcon.

Draft may

:: Whitten/ pse speak

港下亞畢道

本署檔號 OUR REF.:

CR 2/4821/75

* Your Ref.:

1 SEP 1976

xx 263/5486

Dear John.

HONG KONG

6th September, 1976

pse speak Mate

teis

DAM

-BLE.

There have been some developments in finding permanent homes for the 125 refugees that came to Hong Kong in the M. V. AVA and two other vessels, of which you should be aware.

I enclose a copy of a letter dated the 2nd September from the US Consul General, together with a copy of our reply. As you will see the Americans have reverted to the request that Hong Kong should agree to provide certain of these refugees with re-entry documents in the unlikely event that during the first two years that they are in the United States they may have to be deported. We went through all this and resisted it in our long drawn out negotiations before allowing the refugees to land. When they did land we thought that it was under the clear understanding that UNHCR would accept complete responsibility for them. We also hoped that the US authorities here. and in Washington would be able, if we landed them, to find permanent homes for them without any residual obligations accruing to this Government,

We are now told that this cannot be done,

We have considered this carefully both in regard to the possibility of more refugees arriving in the future and in the light of the actual progress made by the UNHCR in finding homes for refugees other than in Canada, France, Germany or in the United States. We have reluctantly concluded that in the case of this group of refugees only we would be wise to give the assurance regarding re-entry to Hong Kong.

Overall the position is, that of the original 125 refugees, 22 have so far left (4 to France, 12 to Canada, 6 to USA): of the remainder the United States are considering 52; 7 under the Expanded Parole system and 45 under the P7 programme. It is to the 45 under the P7 programme that the re-entry requirements refer. In addition, 19 refugees are being processed by the Germans, 4 by the Canadians and 2 by the French. If all these permanent homes materialise there will still be 26 remaining for which UNHCR will have to search for permanent homes.

I am sending a copy of this letter to Washington.

hours over

C.S. 41A

J. A. B. Stewart, Esq., OBE,

Hong Kong Indian Ocean Department, Foreign & Commonwealth Office,

London SW1A 2AH,

United Kingdom.

A

Dur

(L. M. Davies)

Secretary for Security

CONFIDENTIAL