TNAG-0885-FCO40-1095-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 11

Registry No.

SECURITY C “SSIFICATION

Top Secret.

Secret.

Confidential.

Restricted.

Unclassified.

PRIVACY MARKING

1

3

DRAFT

CONFIDENTIAL

letter

To:-

Timothy Raison Esq MP

Minister of State

Home Office

50 Queen Anne's Gate SW1H 9AT

Type 1 +

From

Mr Blaker

Telephone No. Ext.

Department

SKU

i

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES ON THE MV SIBONGA...

1. The British registered vessel, MV Sibonga (British Bank

Line), has picked up 900 shipwrecked Vietnamese refugees, an

is now proceeding with them towards Hong Kong, its next

scheduled port of call. It is due to arrive there late on

23 May.

2.

.*

The Governor of Hong Kong has asked for an assurance

that if the, refugees are allowed to land there the UK will

accept for resettlement all who are not offered places by

third countries (effectively the United States). If the

Sibonga's next port of call had been another port in the

region, say Bangkok or Singapore, we would have had to give

such an assurance to get the refugees landed: this is curren

policy. In Hong Kong's case I think we have to reassure the

in the same way :)

Governorso as not to deter British masters in future from

picking up refugees in genuine distress at sea, to meet

public concern in Hong Kong, and to show the rest of the

world that we are responsive to the alarming refugee burden

in the Colony. You probably saw that I answered in the

Adjournment Debate on this whole problem on 17 May.

3. We cannot yet tell how many of the Sibonga's 900

refugees will have to come to Britain, but at a guess I

would say well over half of them may be on our hands.

is a sizeable figure on top of the 1,500 Indo-China refugees

This

/we are

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