Mr Weir
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 243/1
RECEIVED IN RES
1 1 DEC 1978
DESK OF CEN
136. 51
Rited
SEJAD Grote The
1.
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Wed
318
Departmente mest mala sue
UNHCR CONSULTATIONS ON INDO CHINESE REFUGEES. Mat UKMIS Geneva has good
GENEVA, 11-12 DECEMBER
1
statistical and political
briefing.
Дви
Dr Merrillées, Counsellor at the Australian High Commission, and Mr Metcalfe, Counsellor (Migration), called yesterday on UN Department (I had Mr Morgan with me) to discuss the forthcoming UNHCR consultations on Indo-Chinese refugees. These international consultations, they said, were inspired largely by Australia in an effort to have the international community bear a greater respons- ibility for the resettlement of refugees from Indo-China. They left the attached statement by the Australian Minister for Immigration and made the following main points:
(a)
(b)
The Australians are focussing almost exclusively on the problem of "boat refugees" as opposed to "land refugees":
They do not particularly expect those countries taking part to announce, at the conference, specific additional quotas for admission to their territories of Indo-Chinese "boat refugees" They do, however, expect the inter- national community as a whole to recognise that even greater efforts than hitherto are needed to solve the resettlement problem. And they want a greater commitment, in principle, from the international community to help further over resettling refugees:
(c) The Australian Government had previously agreed to admit 10,000 Indo-Chinese refugees in this financial year.
(a)
It
is not their intention to announce any new quota at the forthcoming consultations. Australia is, however, keen to see European countries particularly, including the UK, take a greater interest in the problem. We agreed, adding that the same applied to Japan:
They urged that the UK be represented at the consultations at a high level. The Australian Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs will lead their delegation:
(e) So far as putting pressure on Vietnam is concerned, either
directly or through third countries such as ASEAN states, to desist from their harsh policies, the Australian position is similar to ours. For humanitarian reasons, they would not be prepared to take any measures to encourage the Vietnamese to clamp down on the exodus of genuine refugees wishing to leave Vietnam.
2. I told them we would be ready to see discussed at these consult- ations, particularly among Western countries and in the margins if necessary, ways in which the Vietnamese Government might be encouraged to change their present policy. At this stage, we expected the UK delegation to be led by Sir James Murray. We thought that the conference on 11/12 December might be the first of a series of such meetings and it was our understanding that most of the two days
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