TNAG-0898-FCO40-1108-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 212

Our reference: Your reference:

R JT McLaren Esq

Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hong Kong and General Department

King Charles Street

LONDON SW1A 2AH

Dear Micha

en

HOME OFFICE

Queen Anne's Gate, LONDON, SWIH 9AT

Direct line: 01-213 7292 Switchboard: 01-213 3000

7758A

He willing Ill.

Pl. arrange corzing

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HAKK

843/1 DGISTRY NO. 5!

1 1 OCT 1979

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Vaddressees

8.October 1979

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES: NEW CO-ORDINATION ARRANGEMENTS FOR VOLUNTARY BODIES.

I enclose a copy of a letter which I have today sent to the local authority associations and which is self explanatory.

In practice the creation of the new committee and Secretariat is unlikely to affect most Government Departments directly except to the extent that policy matters may arise whi affect the day to day work of the voluntary bodies. In these circumstances it is possible either that the Secretariat will want to pursue the matter through us with the Department responsible or that it will be discussed within the Joint Committee itself in which case either the Home Office will act as the Government spokesman or the Department concerned will be invited to the meeting for that item. In any event, any contact you may have with the new machinery on such matters of substance will usually be channelled through us. The possibility cannot be ruled out, however, of operational details arising (for example concerning the arrival of a particular group of refugees) which need to sorted out urgently and which might most appropriately be dealt with directly between the Secretariat and those concerned. This is unlikely to happen very often, but the appropriate Departments (in practice I suspect only DHSS, Customs and Excise and our own Immigration and Nationality Department) may wish to note the possibility.

Your work may be more directly affected by the proposal (I think accepted by those who have already been consulted on these proposals) that there should be some Depart- mental representation on the proposed Advisory Council. The Secretariat will shortly be making arrangements for setting up this Council, and we will be in touch with you again, as appropriate, when we have their more detailed proposals.

I am writing in these terms to all those on the attached list and to interested Home Office Departments.

yous

incere

от

Michael Head

ME HEAD