TNAG-0792-FCO40-996-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1978 — Page 25

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It is, in any case, inevitable that a number of the refugees already in Hong Kong will not be accepted for resettlement elsewhere and will have to be allowed to remain in Hong Kong. To try and alleviate this problem, the Home Office earlier this year agreed to accept into the UK 61 refugees from Hong Kong who could not be resettled elsewhere. The number, although small, represented some 25% of the total number of refugees who were unlikely to be resettled at the time the offer was made. Consideration is now being given to accepting a larger group. Once a decision on this has been made we would hope to approach other countries in an attempt to obtain similar assistance from them.

Relations between the Hong Kong government and the UNHCR are excellent and the UNHCR representative in the region pays frequent visits to Hong Kong. He and his colleagues have been particularly helpful in arranging accommodation for the refugees in hotels. It has been, and remains, the policy of the Hong Kong government not to open camps for these refugees.

Burma/Bangladesh Refugee Problem

In April this year, Muslims from the Arakan (South-West) area of Burma began crossing into Bangladesh in large numbers, claiming that they had been persecuted by the Burmese authorities. On 19 May the Red Cross estimated the number of refugees at about 140,000, and the daily increase at 4,000. The Bangladesh authorities provided temporary shelter for the refugees in camps inside the border but conditions were poor and a number of deaths from cholera and other diseases occurred.

The UNHCR made an emergency allocation of US $500,000 towards the immediate relief of the Burmese refugees in Bangladesh. The UK gave immediate assistance of polythene sheeting and medicines worth about £60,000 and a further £750,000 in response to a UNHCR appeal to governments for contributions in cash and kind towards a programme of assistance estimated at US $15.5 million.

The reasons for the exodus remain obscure and it would not be appropriate for the UK delegation to enter into any discussion on these. The Burmese claimed that they were simply checking identification papers to ensure the legality of the resident foreign community in accordance with a government decision and that those fleeing did so because of their illegal status. The Bangladeshis claimed that it was a pre-meditated eviction by the Burmese authorities of the Muslim minority in the Arakan State and that the action constituted a violation of human rights. In retrospect, the exodus appears to have been a panic reaction to a legitimate citizens check exercise which escalated beyond what the Burmese authorities had intended.

In a surprise announcement on 9 July, the Joint Burmese/ Bangladesh delegations examining the problem stated that agreement had been reached on the repatriation, in three phases, of the "lawful residents" of Burma. The agreement also made provision for the demarcation of the boundary between the two countries and for measures to prevent illegal immigration.

CONFIDENTIAL

/The Burmese