A
Miss Brown
PS/Mr Hurd
HREE THIS
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 243
RECEIVED IN RESSIMY NO. 51 25 JUL 1979
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
28
Mr mayed on J25.7
Private Secretary
PA
по
дж
PROBLEM
1.
assurance that
The shipping industry is pressing for an
refugees picked up by British ships will automatically be
accepted for resettlement.
RECOMMENDATION
2.
I commend that the Private Secretary writes to the DOT
on the lines of the attached draft.
BACKGROUND AND ARGUMENT
3.
The shipping industry is concerned about the considerable
problems faced by shipmasters and the liabilities, including
penalties for failure to deliver on time faced by shipowners in
the present situation. Refugees are most likely to be picked up
on the northbound route which follows the coast. Ports on this
route, Hong Kong apart, are unlikely to offer a temporary asylum
under the first port of call principle or will only do so when
the flag state guarantees to resettle the refugees in the last
resort possibly within a fixed period.
Mr Ropner, President of the General Council of British
Shipping (GCBS), wrote to Mr Nott on 16 July to suggest that
refugees picked up by British ships should automatically be
CONFIDENTIAL
/included
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