TNAG-0880-FCO40-1090-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 64

CONFIDENTIAL

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Mr Simpson-Orlebar

Mi Quan tru

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Reference

I suspect tha Orr who gong

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Ms

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG weyond lui tret.

1.

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PL speck

Mr Orr, Assistant Political Adviser in Hong Kong, telephoned a few days ago to make a number of points in connexion with the impending visit to Hong Kong of the Home Office official and BCAR representative to select the 1,000 refugees who are to be brought to the UK. I told him he should discuss the matter with MVD and I gather that Mr Mallett subsequently spoke to Mr Orr about this. The latter, however, made the following points to me.

2.

He said that while the visit by the Home Office official would be welcome he thought it impracticable for a number of reasons to choose 1,000 refugees from Hong Kong at this stage and rather envisaged the Home Office making a visit to Hong Kong for this purpose in about July this year. The problem, at present, was basically a bureaucratic one. A number of offers were being made by other countries to accept refugees from Hong Kong and representatives of the FRG, Canada and Australia were already processing applications from refugees who are under the care of the UNHCR (over 3,000 refugees in this category). Most of the refugees in Hong Kong had the United Kingdom third or fourth on their list of preferences and it was unlikely that the number we envisaged taking would, at present, come forward voluntarily expressing a keen interest to come to Britain. The UK was simply not a popular destination.

3. Another problem was that so many of the refugees were still in detention and had not been properly documented including by the UNHCR. Mr Orr thought that some 500 of the 1,000 we would expect to bring to Britain would be refugees who had not yet arrived in Hong Kong.

4. The line was very bad and it was difficult to have a proper conversation, but I expressed surprise and said I thought the Home Office official concerned would still wish to visit Hong Kong now to see how matters stood.

5. I gather that the Home Office are rather upset at this turn of events and they are keen that the arrangements already made by the voluntary agencies to receive refugees here over the time scale proposed should be adhered to. The Home Office are not particularly interested themselves in where the refugees come from and it may well be that, after their visit to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand, they will recommend that greater numbers be taken from both Thailand and Malaysia and fewer from Hong Kong. The Home Office appear to be having doubts about the validity of our Secretary of State's claim to the Home Secretary that the refugee problem particularly in Hong Kong had worsened and that it was essential we help them as soon as possible. It may well be that there are genuine bureaucratic problems

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