TNAG-0883-FCO40-1093-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 18

CONFIDENTIAL

551

布政司署

243/1

GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT

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RECEIVED IN REG.51/V 90. $1

港下亞

畢道

本署檔號 OUR REF.:

CR 3/4821/79

* YOUR Ref.:

Mr. R. J. T. McLaren

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

17 APR 1979

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INDEX

No

Hong Kong and General Department

.4.79

ENGLAND

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19.4

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„LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG

7th April, 1979

J19.4 Mr Williamson

~pleasepurone-ingonth, with UND: UNHCR are clearly being unrealistic.

102 17/4

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In my telegram No. 436 of 3rd April I said that we would be writing about the increasing pressure which was developing in finding accommodation for refugees.

2.

After De Haan's departure (about which I wrote in my letter CR 2/4821/79 of 19th March) we were a little dismayed to find in discussion with the local representative of UNHCR that he was only prepared to agree that arrangements for accommodation for 2,000 with a possible further 2, 000 should be made. He said that this was because the UNHCR position was that there would be a reduction in the outflow from Vietnam as a result of the verbal agreement which De Haan had reached with the Vietnamese authorities. He also said that the basis of participation with the Hong Kong Government for the construction of a camp would be for the Hong Kong Government to contribute land, overheads, etc. and about 50% of the cost of the buildings. We were not keen on this because we need to continue to show that once landed against the UNHCR guarantee refugees are a charge on UNHCR. He added that UNHCR would only meet the payment of management costs if they had complete control inside the camp: even then they would not reimburse the Government for Civil Servants. He made a counter offer that UNHCR should erect a camp at its own expense for 2, 000 using buildings of its own design.

3. As a result of this we decided to defer temporarily a decision on the construction of a camp for about 10, 000 people and entered into discussions with UNHCR for a site for their camp.

4.

These discussions were abruptly overtaken by the arrival since the 21st March of 1750 Vietnamese refugees in small boats. Of this total, 1430 have arrived since the 29th March including two boats direct from Da Nang and 990 in one day. These numbers belie De Haan's assessment that there should be some relief for Hong Kong as a result of his agreement with the Vietnamese authorities.

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