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CONTRIBUTIONS TO BRIEF FOR PUS' VISIT TO TOKAR 1979
un Taken
VIETNAMESE BOAT REFUGEES
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1. We acknowledge the very considerable financial support the Japanese are giving to the work of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). We are also pleased that in recent months, the Japanese have made it easier for refugees arriving
in Japan to obtain temporary asylum by dropping their
insistence that Third, countries should guarantee to take for permanent resettlement/Vietnamese refugees, landed in Japan by ships registered in that third country, who are not
resettled elsewhere within three months. This has been for
reassuring masters of UK-registered ships.
any
2. However, I hope that the Japanese Government might see their way, in response to the UNHCR's appeals, to allow more refugees to make their permanent home in Japan. I strongly urge you to include a quota from Hong Kong, which because of its liberal attitude has become a chief target of the boat refugees and is currently holding more than 16,000.
BACKGROUND
3. In 1978, Japan contributed US$ 10.23 M to the UNHCR programmes for Indo-Chinese refugees. The total so far for 1979 is US$ 11.5 M (in 1978 the UK contributed £2 M for this same programme). Japan has until recently only agreed to give temporary asylum to refugees arriving in Japan against Third country guarantees of resettlement. In recent months, however, they have dropped their insistence on Third country guarantees which, we suspect, is a result of representations
from the UK and others.
4.
The Japanese have admitted asylum to only a handful of refugees for permanent resettlement (51 at the end of 1978). We recently urged them and 17 other countries to offer resettlement places to some of the refugees in Hong Kong
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