HKK 243/1
RALEIVED IN REGAR
2 FEB197.
DEAK OFFICER
PA
J812
290
BRITISH COUNCIL FOR
AID
35 Great Peter Street
TO REFUGEES London SW1P 3LR
INDEX
No
REPORT TO THE STANDING CONFERENCE ON REFUGEES
"ASIA COMMITTEE" 22 January 1979
A. Vietnamese "Boat People"
Statistics on Vietnamese Boat People so far received in the UK are enclosed. Since the last report to the Asia Committee no new groups of refugees have been rescued by British ships. However, refugees previously rescued by British ships, the "Anco Sceptre" and the "Sibonga", were flown to Britain from Manila and Singapore respectively. Ockenden Venture received 76 and Save the Children Fund 40 of the "Anco Sceptre" refugees and BCAR took the eleven "Sibonga" refugees from Singapore and are ready to take this week a further group of thirty "Anco Sceptre" refugees from Manila.
The wide and favourable publicity given to the most gallant rescue of 346 refugees by the "Wellpark" generated tremendous goodwill amongst the general public in Britain towards Vietnamese boat refugees and their plight. As a result we were swamped by gifts of clothing and toys and practical offers of help of all kinds. Most important of all, many Local Councils, Corporations and Housing Associations in various parts of Britain came up with offers of housing for Vietnamese refugee families. We are at present in the fortunate situation of having more housing offers than refugees, which has enabled us to plan resettlement in the way which, we believe, will most effectively achieve successful settlement in the longer term. This is resettling groups of 5
20 families in an area with reasonable employment prospects, good facilities for learning English as a second language and for retraining, and where there is good local support from voluntary as well as statutory bodies. It is essential to settle them in groups so as to avoid isolation and yet the groups should be small enough to avoid overburdening local educational and other facilities.
Although we have at present many more offers than we can use, the situation may change rapidly when we start accepting those from the additional quota of 1,500 refugees from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand which has just been announced by the Government. It is also possible that a substantial number of the "Wellpark" refugees, who have applied to emigrate to other countries to join their relatives there, may not be able to emigrate after all and will remain to be resettled in the UK.
The movement of refugees out of BCAR reception centres in London has been as follows:
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