TNAG-0894-FCO40-1104-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 310

BACKGROUND

CONFIDENTIAL

A.

First Port of Call

It has long been accepted internationally that persons

rescued at sea are accepted automatically for temporary

landing at least by the country of the next port of

call which is identifiable from the ship's manifest

and port clearance papers. The scale of the current

refugee problem has meant that this practice has been

breached either by complete refusal to accept refugees

(eg China and Taiwan) or refusal to accept them unless

the flag state gives an undertaking, usually in writing,

to accept for resettlement any refugees whom UNHCR is

unable to resettle elsewhere within a specified time,

usually three months (eg Singapore and Japan). This

has meant lengthy delays for ships which have picked

up refugees while efforts are made to persuade the

country concerned to change its policy and then for us

to decide whether or not to accept the refugees and

give the necessary guarantee.. For instance the

"Roachbank" affair took a month to solve at an

estimated cost to the shipowner while off hire of

£7000 per day. Other vessels known to have suffered similarly are the Wellpark, 'Sibonga, and Ashford. two instances (both involving Taiwan) UNHCR incurred

higher transport costs than normal through the need

to charter aircraft to transport the refugees to the

UK.

In

Hill. have now exprienced Prevvatini about being

While it will be generally useful to encourage continued are to continue

acceptance of the first port of call principle, certainly

outside the present situation, the United Kingdom is in a diffecent position because it is virtually alone

in refusing to give guarantees straightaway. In the

case of the Ashford we were almost embarrassed by having

the Dutch step in ahead of us. (Ashford's UK owners

have a Dutch parent company.) It is known that UK

registered ships are now routing away from the problem

area where possible in order to a oid the heavy

penalties of meeting their obligions under UK Law

and the relevant

nventions (Br ssels

international

CFIDENTIAL

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to comply due tolange numbers wi

Hu.