TNAG-0893-FCO40-1103-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 37

10.

CONFIDENTIAL

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10. The Singaporeans have always had a hard attitude towards refugees, whose boats have been turned away (after having been replenished).

+

Some refugees have got ashore, but the Singapore authorities have

only been willing to allow refugees to land from foreign ships, when

the country of ownership has agreed to give a written guarantee

(in cooperation with the UNHCR) that the refugees will be maintained and will be removed within 90 days. Mr Lee Kuan Yew has proposed, Like the Malaysians, a large island centre to accept up to 200,000 refugees without settlement. places, but he proposes it should be

bought by the UNHCR.

11.

Thailand has 137,000 Laotian refugees, who are maintained by the

UNHCR, and has a Vietnamese refugee colony dating from 1954. The

UNHCR is also responsible for 16,000 Cambodians.

12. Recently, however, tens of thousands of Cambodians, many of

whom have been armed soldiers of one or other of the Cambodian s

military factions, have crossed and recrossed the Thai frontier.

According to local press reports, more than 150,000 Cambodians have

entered Thailand since 7 January 1979. The Thais have been unwilling

for the UNHCR to have access to them, for fear that the refugees would

acquire permanent status. Many are women and children in pitiful

condition. In addition there were reported to be 42,215 Cambodian

soldiers on Thai territory on 15 June.

13.

The Thais embarked, on 8 June, on a policy of forcibly

repatriating these people, despite the risk that many of them might

perish in Cambodia, and have sent back 110,800 of them. They have

agreed to suspend expulsions at least until the results of the

UN conference on refugees are known.

14. The Thais have for some time been attempting to turn away boat- loads of Vietnamese refugees, but as many as 4,349 people may have succeeded in coming ashore'