BY BAG
CR 12/4821/79
CONFIDEN MAL
1835
HKCK 243/1
RECEIVED IN Y
DES
R
- 8 NOV 1979
M. 1 November 1979
t
7.11
INDE
Chancery ATHENS
RESETTLEMENT OF REFUGEES FROM HONG KONG IN GREECE
We have recently taken up with the local UNHCR office here the question of the 150 refugees who we understood were to be accepted by Greece from Hong Kong (your telno 220 of 18 July to FCO). There has been no sign yet of a Greek selection team or of the UNHCR selecting the refugees to go to Greece. Ulrich Freyschmidt, the UNHCR Resettlement officer here, told me yesterday that he has learned from his headquarters in Geneva that the Greek Government has not yet completed its socio-economic integration plans for the refugees. He added that the background appeared to be that originally it was hoped to have the refugees employed at extremely low wages in domestic service but that objections to this had caused the Greek Government to revise their plans.
2.
We shall be grateful to know how things stand at present and any encouragement which you can give the Greeks to speed up the acceptance of these refugees would be greatly appreciated here. We hope to send by bag next week a revised fact sheet on Vietnamese refugees here. Meanwhile, you may find it useful to point out that up to the end of September Hong Kong had a resettlement rate of only 17% compared with 38% for all other places of first asylum. As of today there are 63,000 refugees awaiting resettlement - so that the Greeks have plenty to choose from.
(I C Orr)
cc T C S Stitt Esq, SEAD, FCO
DR Snoxell Esq, UKMIS GENEVA PJ Williamson Esq, HK&GD, FCO
FIDENTIAL
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