NKK 243/1
RELOVED IN REO
2 3 MAY 1979
INDEX
From The Minister of State
Peter Blaker MP
CONFIDENTIAL
707
TOTHINGS
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
10. 51
ISTRY Yon Taken
London SW1A 2AH
22 May 1979
Dear Tui,
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES ON THE MV SIBONGA
1. The British registered vessel, MV Sibonga (British Bank Line), has picked up 900 shipwrecked Vietnamese refugees, and 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 current policy. In Hong Kong's case I think we have to reassure the Governor in the same way: so 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. This is a sizeable figure on top of the 1,500 Indo-China refugees we are committed to take in the next year or so (1,000 from Hong Kong). The Governor of Hong Kong has asked that those of the Sibonga group not accepted by the United States should be moved to this country within a month, because of the serious pressure on space in Hong Kong. I think this is giving us too little time unless you are satisfied that the voluntary agencies are ready, and money is available, for immediate resettle- ment of a group of this size. But clearly we should move them as
soon as we can.
4.
If you agree, I would wish to give the Governor the assurance he needs and also to say that we will accept the refugees who will have to be resettled here as quickly as possible preferably in batches and hopefully with the first batch moving within a month. Time is short, and it would be helpful if you could telephone your concurrence so that a telegram can be despatched tomorrow or on 24 May at the latest.
Timothy Raison Esq MP Minister of State
Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate SWIH 9AT
CONFIDENTIAL
Yours ever,
balu.
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