TNAG-0893-FCO40-1103-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 107

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH

UNCLASSIFIED

J M Graham Esq

Department of Trade

1 Victoria Street LONDON SW1H OET

Telephone 01-

233 8631

243

Your reference

Our reference

HKK 24

+3/1

Date 6 July 1979

ло

&W 7/8

In

157 vi

1303

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES

Thank you for your letters of 18 and 26 June about the problem of shipping company losses incurred as a consequence of rescuing refugees

1.

at sea.

2.

We do not underestimate the serious difficulties which shipping companies face when and after Vietnamese refugees are picked up at sea but we should be most reluctant to make any formal approach to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees with a view to getting him to defray shipping companies costs in this regard. The UNHCR has no off-shoots we think could usefully be approached either. It is true that the UNHCR has accepted ultimately to pay for the transport costs of refugees

costs of brought to the United Kingdom from Hong Kong. I am not so sure, however, that this fact is i itself a logical reason for the UNHCR to defray shipping companies' expenses incurred as a consequence of rescue operations. The High Commissioner would undoubtedly make a clear distinction between expenses incurred by his organisation at refugee camps and those of shipping companies following rescue operations. As far as I am aware, the High Commissioner is unable to accept responsibility for refugees until they have been landed. But even if he did, his aim would be to provide for them and, hard as it may seem, not to reimburse shipping companies' costs. When on board ship, refugees (or any other survivor) rescued at sea are the responsibility of the master of the vessel. seems to me that any expenses incurred as a result are also his or, by extension, his company's responsibility. If the shipping insurance market is unable to be helpful in this respect then clearly some other means will have to be found.

It

3. The High Commissioner, as you know, is already desperately short of funds to maintain his commitment to protect and assist refugees already in the camps in South East Asia and, looking at his requirements up the end of the year, he has a deficit of some US 867 million. And that is assuming numbers remain at their present level but they won't; the exodus from Vietnam continues.

4. I have discussed this matter informally with the Deputy UNHCR Rep- resentative in London. He believes that any approach to the High Commissioner would be bound to fail for practical reasons if for no

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other; there simply is not enough money adequately to feed the present

/refugee