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own information, the UNHCR representative in the UK, Mr Heidler, has represented to officials that UNHCR had understood Lord Carrington statement at the Geneva conference in July taken together with the UK delegation's official communiqué to mean that the 10,000 would be taken within the period July 1979 - July 1980. In reply officials have told Mr Heidler that the Government was not formally committed to receiving the 10,000 over any particular period. In practice, the rate of intake will depend upon the availability of reception centre accommodation and the speed at which the refugees can be resettled in permanent accommodation. Of the voluntary refugee organisations themselves, the British Council for Aid to Refugees and the Save the Children Fund are by no means convinced that it would be in the best interests of the refugees themselves to bring them to this country at such a rate that they would have to spend very long periods in camps. The Ockenden Venture, on the other hand, argue that conditions in Hong Kong are such that to keep refugees in camps there rather than here could increase the difficulties of their eventual successful resettlement here). The public position taken up by Home Office Ministers and officials is that the rate of intake beyond January will be reviewed towards the end of the year in the light of our experience with the resettlement of those who have arrived here in the meantime. The UK Government is as anxious as everyone else to take the 10,000 as quickly as possible, but it would not want to see a situation in which refugees had to spend very long periods in isolation in reception centres because of difficulties in obtaining permanent housing.
It is the policy of the Government to resettle the refugees widely around the country where housing and job opportunities are available. In order to avoid cultural isolation families are being settled in groups of not less than four or five families wherever possible. Local authorities, housing associations and others are being asked to make housing available for the refugees. There is no requirement for local authorities to provide houses for this purpose and there is no compulsion for refugees to accept housing in particular areas. In practice, the areas of resettlement are widely dispersed throughout
the UK.
The Government are reimbursing the voluntary refugee organisations for the necessary additional costs arising from their reception and resettlement arrangements. A decision in principle has been taken
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