TNAG-0793-FCO40-997-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1978 — Page 80

Mr Weir

CONFIDENTIAL

HKK 243/1

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY 1:0. 51 3 0 NOV 1978

315

2321

Mr

Thing

PA

azi

"BOAT REFUGEES" FROM VIETNAM,

IN.

Problem

جلد

1.

A

Should the Government admit more Vietnamese "boat refugees"

This submission follows discussion with you,

to the United Kingdom?

Mr Murray and the geographical departments.

Background and Argument

2.

The exodus (now estimated to be about 12,000 per month) of refugees from Vietnam has plæed an intolerable burden on South-East Asian countries with which the UK has close and friendly relations. Hong Kong has its own particular difficulties in this regard. Lord Goronwy-Roberts wrote on 5 October to Mr Brynmor John at the Home Office asking whether the UK could admit 500 or 600 "boat refugees" largely from Hong Kong to alleviate the latter's burden: his letter sets out much of the background to the general problem.

3. In recent weeks a new dimension to the Vietnamese refugee problem has arisen, of which the ss HAI HONG, off the coast of Malaysia with some 2,500 souls aboard, is an example. Vietnamese officials are evidently in league with captains of merchant vessels to dun refugees for gold in return for allowing them to take passage: press reports have alleged that Hong Kong entrepreneurs are involved. The HAI HONG, if allowed to discharge numbers of its human cargo, is likely to be followed by other vessels carrying thousands of refugees. French and Canadian officials are interviewing refugees on board with a view to their resettlement: 161 have already gone

to Canada.

4.

The Malaysian Government, which has hitherto been generous over the admittance of "boat refugees", has been faced with a perplexing dilemma since the HAI HONG's arrival. The Malaysians have told us that, despite the monsoon weather, they are now receiving as many as 3,000 Vietnamese refugees a week, to add to the 40,000 who have already arrived. The rate at which such "boat

refugees" can be resettled in other, mainly Western, countries is

/much

CONFIDENTIAL