Mr Cortazzi
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HKK 2431
DESK RIDEX
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
At a meeting at the Home Office this morning the Lord Privy Seal told the Home Secretary that UNHCR had given us a quota of 10,000 refugees. Cabinet had to reach an agreed position on this and UNHCR were pressing for a response within a few days. It was desirable to have a position before the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State went to Tokyo next Tuesday. In discussion Mr Whitelaw said that his reading of Parliamentary and public opinion indicated that it would be extremely difficult to accept 10,000. He thought that 1,000
He doubted whether an a year for five years was the maximum. early decision would necessarily be the best one but thought that there might be advantage in testing the water at Tokyo before making the final decision. However the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary would need to be in possession of all the facts since they may have to play it by ear.
It was agreed therefore that the Foreign Office, should take the lead in drafting a joint paper to be forwarded to the Prime Minister by the Foreign and Home Secretaries on Monday. The paper should essentiallybe factual and deal with all relevant aspects of the situation including statistics on the refugee situation in South East Asia, responses by other governments, UK and international obligations, attitudes of other governments towards refugees picked up by their countries vessels, the overall migration figures for the UK (Home Office to supply), capacity of voluntary organisations, financial implications of settlement, UK assistance to international and domestic refugee organisations etc.
Much of this material is already contained in the annex to the draft minute circulated yesterday. It was not envisaged that the paper should make any recommendations, but you might wish to consult again with Mr Woodfield on how far it should go on delineating options.
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