CONFIDENTIAL
2
-
formula, for use with the UNHCR and with other Governments, on resettlement guarantees for refugees who might be allowed to go to the island centre if one is set up (see paragraph ? below).
4
Our meeting regarded it as an open question whether the establishment of an island refugee centre would encourage a greater outflow from Vietnam and we saw some difficult problems in the operation of the scheme. For example, if the island centre is established without blanket resettlement guarantees being given, there may well be a residual problem stretching over years which the West toca great extent would probably be expected to finance and for which we may well be criticised. The establishment of a refugee centre of the kind envisaged would not be a solution to the Indo-Chinese refugee problem. On the assumption that some of the refugees presently in refugee camps in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere could be sent to the island - under conditions still to be determined - the congestion in those camps would be eased, for a time at least. But any permanent relief would come about only through a continued off-take from the existing camps, either for permanent resettlement or to the island as an indeterminate transit stage.
The prime reason for supporting the scheme is to help Hong Kong, in accordance with our responsibilities. But we also need to appear positive in our response to the UNHCR for the sake of our good relations with ASEAN countries, particularly Thailand and Malaysia. Both ASEAN and the Governor of Hong Kong strongly support the proposal. In the absence of any other workable alternative, therefore, we think it right that the UK should be prepared to lend its support in getting the scheme off the ground, and that we should be ready as a leading member of the UNHCR Executive Committee to participate constructively in further international discussions. Our overall profile should, however, be fairly low. I think the Americans, whether they like it or not, will be expected to take the lead among Western countries in offering support for the idea. ASEAN will certainly be looking to them rather than us to pull any tricks out of the bag.
Resettlement
6
We do not intend to answer all the questions in the UNHCR informal working paper (which we copied to your department on 31 January): there have, in any case, been the further developments described above since this was written. We shall avoid commenting at this stage on which classes of refugees should be allowed to go to the island, leaving this to the UNHCR to sort out though we may need to intervene if he proposes a formula which would exclude any of those in Hong Kong.
7
with regard to the call by ASEAN states for blanket resettlement guarantees for all who may go to the island, we
CONFIDENTIAL
/should
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.