TNAG-0890-FCO40-1100-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 220

C.

1062)

THE PRIME MINISTER

Rea

10 DOWNING STREET

Hkk 243d

RESELLE

George no

22.0

PS/LPS

PalMR. BLARER

PS) Pus Sin A Dust

MR. CERTAZZ

PR. MunnTRY

RED

HRAGO

(ง)

11 June 1979

Thank you for your letter of 1 June about the problems of

providing accommodation for the Vietnamese boat people after their initial reception into this country.

You are right in thinking that there will be problems in

finding sufficient local authority accommodation for settlement after the six months or so these people will need in the reception

centres. Your offer of help, therefore, is particularly timely and

I warmly welcome it.

Willie Whitelaw is co-ordinating the arrangements for receiving these refugees. Immediate operational responsibility, however,

is being undertaken by the main voluntary refugee organisations

specifically, the British Council for Aid to Refugees, the Ockenden

Venture and Save the Children including negotiations with local

authorities which have offered long-term accommodation and the

transfer of the refugees from reception centres to their permanent

homes. The position is also complicated by the existence of other Vietnamese refugees who are already here or due to arrive here shortly and who will be equally in need of long-term accommodation. Translating your prompt and generous offer into action on the

ground therefore, may need careful handling, particularly in view of

the sensitivities to which you draw attention.

One option may be for you to make the accommodation available

to the Vietnamese refugees in this country generally (ie not just those from the MV Sibonga) and to discuss direct with the refugee organisations the numbers and locations in which they would be provided. Home Office officials will be writing very shortly to the

/local authority