BY AIR MAIL
243/3
243/1
HKK243
BRITISH EMBASSY
BUENOS AIRES
28 November 1979
I C Orr Esq
Government Secretariat
HONG KONG
Dear
On
зра
7/12
Əridianu
612
18799)
VIETNAMESE
REFUGEES:
RESETTLEMENT
FROM HONG KONG
1. On receipt of your letter CR13/581/79 of 9 November to SEAD, I called on Ministro Bianculli of the MFA on 27 November.
2. When we talked in mid-October, the Hong Kong element in the first refugee contingent to reach Argentina was proving a consider- able headache to Bianculli. We concluded that there was little point in pressing the Argentines at that moment to accept further Hong Kong refugees. Not much has changed in the intervening period. While the particular problems caused by the first Hong Kong group seem to have been resolved, the Argentines have no plans at present to pay another visit to Hong Kong. Their selection team has been fully occupied in Thailand since September and is expected to con- tinue work there until the end of the year. At that stage, there is expected to be a temporary slowing down in the rate of refugee arrivals in Argentina (I suspect this has more to do with the traditional January/February summer break in Argentina than the professed difficulties over flights).
3. It remains to be decided where the Argentine selection team will direct its attention in the New Year. At this stage, there seems to be a predisposition in favour of Thailand, no doubt based on familiarity with conditions there. However, Bianculli indicated" that other sources would certainly be considered, and confirmed that as far as Hong Kong was concerned, the door remained open. But he re-stated his belief that the great majority of the refugees in Hong Kong were not the agriculturally-orientated sort that Argentina wants. He said that a further visit by the selection team to Hong Kong was only likely to be made if UNHCR/CIME could preselect a group of significant size, say several hundred, with the appropriate background and skills.
RESTRICTED
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