CONFIDENTIAL
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Mr Murr
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Private Secretary
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VIETNAMESE REFUGEES:
1.
A
INDY
N2
CALL BY MR JACK ASHLEY MP
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Mr Jack Ashley MP (Labour Stoke on Trent, South) has asked to see the Secretary of State to discuss his letter of 15 January in
which he asks Dr Owen:
(a) to intervene with the Hong Kong Government to allow
the Huey Fong refugees to land immediately on a
temporary basis;
and
(b) to convene an international conference to consider
the wider refugee problem.
I understand that a meeting is being arranged later today.
as
Mr Ashley's letter has been released to the press, but so far/I have been able to discover has not yet been published or reported.
2.
The Secretary of State may wish to draw on the following paragraphs in discussion with Mr Ashley.
Huey Fong
3.
The Hong Kong Government have consistently followed the principle that shipwrecked survivors rescued by ocean-going vessels should be landed at the first scheduled port of call. This principle has also been applied to refugees arriving in their own small boats or rescued by local fishing vessels. In line with this policy 5,172 small boat refugees were allowed to land in Hong Kong in 1978. Only 2,108 of these have so far been resettled elsewhere. A further 1,110 refugees in addition to the 3,400 (not 2,700 as was first thought) on board the Huey Fong have arrived in the first 14 days
of January.
w
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While
4.
Hong Kong was not the Huey Fong's first port of call. still 1,000 miles from Hong Kong (and the same distance from Taiwan) the master was warned that he would not be allowed to enter Hong Kong and should proceed to Kaohsiung in Taiwan, his original destination. He ignored this message, and the many efforts made to persuade him to sail for Taiwan since the Huey Fong's arrival off Hong Kong on 23 December have all failed.
5.
Various attempts, some of them involving indirect approaches
CONFIDENTIAL
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