TNAG-0878-FCO40-1088-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 69

t.

UNITED NATIONS

HIGH COMMISSIONER

FOR REFUGEES

Regional Office

for Eastern South Asia

29F International Building 141 Des Voeux Road Central Hong Kong Tel. 5-437718

NATIONS UNIES

HAUT COMMISSARIAT POUR LES RÉFUGIÉS

Bureau régional

pour l'Asie du Sud orientale

Geneva, 29 cember

1978

(

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Your Excellency,

As you are aware, my Office has been closely following the events regarding the "luey Fong" which arrived in Hong Kong on the morning of 23 December with some 2,700 displaced persons from Vietnam aboard. The situation of these persons is, as Your Excellency will appreciate, a source of considerable concern to me and I would like at the outset to express my appreciation to the Hong Kong Government for its understanding of the humanitarian issues involved and of the action already taken to assist the displaced persons while still aboard. I have thus been glad to learn from my representative in Hong Kong that the Hong Kong authorities have made provision for these persons to receive food, water, other relief supplies and also medical attention.

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There remains, however, the larger question of the more permanent solutions which could be envisaged for this group. My Office, as you know, has for some considerable time been devoting special attention to the need for providing durable resettlement opportunities for "boat cases" and in this connection, has been in I close and regular contact with potential resettlement countries. would like to assure you that this continues to be one of my major preoccupations and I will indeed not spare any effort, both to find resettlement opportunities and also to accelerate resettlement procedures. Despite all our efforts in this regard, resettlement must necessarily take a certain time and it is therefore of great importance from a humanitarian point of view that "boat cases" should be permitted to disembark for temporary asylum pending their resettlement elsewhere. May I recall in this connection that the importance of granting temporary asylum was strongly emphasised during the recently held consultation meeting on refugees and displaced persons in South East Asia in which a representative of the Government of Hong Kong also participated.

His Excellency Sir Murray MacLehose, CBE, KCMG, KCVO Governor of Hong Kong.