BY BAG
CR 12/4821/79
PR Boon Esq
THE HAGUE
RESTRICTED
1856
Hex 243/1.
VEO ME REDZETE NO. 512 November 1979
15 NOV 1979
See (1869 See
S
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG: NETHERLANDS RESETTLEMENT
ELSETTI
Fold
Thank you for your letter 022/1 of 24 October (not copied elsewhere) to Leonard Foyes who has now returned to Canberra. I have sent the copies of the background material which you requested by unclassified bag.
2.
The pamphlets, produced by the Hong Kong Community Committee for the Resettlement of Vietnamese Refugees, vere prepared in early september, Their general points remain valia but some of the statistics are now slightly out of date. The latest figures are of course in the fact sheet. ¡lovever, you should be aware that the figure of 8,797 for arrivals in July given in the shorter pamphlet has been revised down to 8,047 following the return to China of a number of refugees who had been found to have been resettled in China, in some cases for periods of up to 18 months, before coming illegally to Hong Kong. A number of further cases are under investigation and may also be returned to China in due course.
36.
We certainly hope there is scope for a significant improvement in the mumbers of refugees accepted by the Netherlands From Hong Kong. You will, no doubt, wish to point out that of the 223 who have already gone this year nearly all (205) originally arrived after being rescued at sea by ships sailing under the Netherlands flag. Only 18 were from direct arrivals on small boats. Indeed, not all the 275 refugees rescued by Dutch ships have yet left" the 61 on the kedlloyd serooskerk which azrived on 20 August have left: 144 of the 164 who arrived on the Sedlloyd steenkerk on 14 3eptember have left; none have left from the ledlloyd Sinoutskerk which arrived on 16 October. It would be helpful and illuminating if you could obtain detailed figures from the Netherlands Government of refugees taken from all places of first asylum in the region, showing in each case the number who were originally rescued at sea by Dutch ships. /
4.
Cur impression is that up to now UNHCR have had some part in influencing the Dutch Goverment to concentrate on refugees in Malaysia and Thailand. We hope that that advice will now start
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