Regist No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
RESTRICTED
DRAFT
letter
To:-
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PRIVACY MARKING
Dr Shirley Summerskill MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary Home Office
....In Confidence
Type 1 +
From
Mr Luard
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
DSRII
At a meeting I had last month in Washington with
MsPatricia Derian, Assistant Secretary for Human Rights and
Humanitarian Affairs in the State Department, she asked
whether the United Kingdom would accept some more refugees
from Indo-China, particularly Vietnamese "boat refugees".
Even a small number, she said, would be a great help in terms
of impact on the US Congress. The Americans themselves wish
to undertake a regular settlement programme but have to
convince Congress that other countries are also sharing the
burden, in however modest a way, by taking some refugees.
I told Ms Derian it was not a particularly good time for the
UK to consider a further influx of refugees, but I would
report her request and let her have a reply in due course.
I have sent her an interim reply, of which I enclose a
copy, explaining what we and Hong Kong have so far done to
help this particular group of refugees. I thought it would
be helpful to show, for the record, that we have not been
inactive in this regard.
Apart from the special problems created when "boat
refugees" are rescued at sea by British vessels, a subject
I know you have already considered in depth, it would, I
believe, be extremely helpful if we could agree to accept
a small further quota of "boat refugees". Our officials
have been in touch regarding the possibility of accepting
such a small quota which could be used to relieve Hong Kong
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