CONFIDENTIAL
490
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
20 March 1979
G L Angel Esq
Immigration & Nationality Dept
Home Office
Lunar House
40 Wellesley Road
CROYDON CR9 2BY
HICK 248/1
! RECEIVED 1.
INDEX
2 2 MAR 1979
1% 12/
Mr
322.3
My comiame J22
IPA.
Dear
Angel,
по
J23.3
PROPOSAL FOR AN ISLAND PROCESSING CENTRE FOR INDO-CHINESE REFUGEES
1
You will no doubt have seen the correspondence between our departments, resting with John Love's letter of 2 February to Pat Morgan, about the proposal for an island refugee processing centre in South-East Asia. You will also have seen the various telegrams we have exchanged with posts on this topic.
2
To bring you up to date on developments, I enclose a copy of 3 State Department telegrams to their Embassy here (given to us on a personal basis) which provide the US Government's views on the island proposal. I also enclose a copy of a teleletter from Jakarta (see para 6 onwards), to which is attached the text of a statement made by the Indonesian Foreign Minister on behalf of ASEAN. The latter sets out the conditions which would be part of any deal to establish a processing centre. Although blanket guarantees of resettlement are called for, we understand that ASEAN countries recognise, privately at least, that these are unlikely to be forthcoming. Following the Far Eastern tour of the Deputy UNHCR, Mr De Haan, the Indonesians have announced that agreement has been reached on the detailed conditions for their offer (Jakarta telno 91 enclosed) - though we do not yet know what these are. According to this telegram, the Indonesian Foreign Minister is going to Geneva on 22 March and further discussions, in which we should probably want to take part, are to be held in April or May.
The General UK Approach
3
Lord Goronwy-Roberts chaired a meeting here last week to consider what our attitude to this proposal should be. We should be most grateful for the Home Office's advice on a
CONFIDENTIAL
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