TNAG-0897-FCO40-1107-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 279

CONFIDENTIAL

ied Japan there would still be refugees on board. We

ked that, in accordance with Mr Sonoda's undertaking to

Geneva refugees meeting, the Japanese Government should

then allow them to land into temporary asylum without

requiring guarantees of resettlement from the flag state and

even though Japan is not the first port of call. The Japanese

response has been equivocal and although our Chargé d'Affaires

believes that the Japanese authorities will in fact allow the

refugees to land at Yokohama, it is clear that they will not

give any undertaking to this effect until all efforts to

land them in China have been exhausted: in effect this means

that we cannot expect a positive Japanese response until

after the Rudd Bank has left Chinese waters. In the light of the Chargé d'Affaires' advice, there is no advantage in making ministerial level representations to the Japanese.

The case is a complex and unique,one, further complicated

by the vessel's detour to Hong Kong to seek medical treatment

for two refugees who were taken into hospital and subsequently transferred to a refugee camp in Hong Kong. It falls outside

the typical case which the Japanese had foreseen,

and comes

at a time when their reception facilities are already almost

full. It remains possible, therefore, that the Japanese authorities w ill wish to attach conditions to the landing of

the refugees at Yokohama, although Mr Sonoda's undertaking in

Geneva was categorical and unqualified. It may accordingly be

necessary to consider at short notice over the weekend the

question of whether the British Government should give a

guarantee of eventual resettlement of the refugees on the

Rudd Bank if they have not been accepted for resettlement

elsewhere within a certain period after arrival in Japan.

even possible that the Japanese authorities might insist on

their immediate removal to the United Kingdom, as was done in the case of the Aibonga refugees when landed at Hong Kong or the Roach Bank refugees when landed at Taiwan.

It

S

If the Japanese request a guarantee of eventual resettlement,

it is the Lord Privy Seal's provisional view that the Government should agree to give it immediately.

The owners

of the Rudd Bank, Bank Line, have been extremely cooperative

/throughout