TNAG-0900-FCO40-1110-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 82

TC S Stitt Esq

SEAD

FCO

Dear Chive

REST

MEK

10 DEC1979

My hats Rw10/12 N Williams

T896

ра

-British Embassy

Bonn

3 December 1979

1842

Su

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES: RESETTLEÆNT FROM HONG KONG

1. I called recently on Frau Dr Heide-Blöch, the Auswärtiges Amt desk officer responsible for refugee resettlement questions, to talk about the resettlement in the FRG of refugees from Hong Kong. I left behind a speaking note based on paras 4, 7 and 8 of Iain Orr's letter to you of 9 November, together with a copy of the latest edition of Hong Kong's fact sheet on Vietnamese refugees in the colony, updated to take account of UNHCR's figures for the arrival and resettlement of boat refugees during October.

2. Frau Dr Heide-Blöch was quick to reassure me that the FRG would continue to take a fair share of refugees from Hong Kong• The Auswärtiges Ant regarded this as an act of solidarity with the UK as one of their European partners. In addition, Hong Kong's humanitarian policy towards the refugees deserved to be rewarded by a resettlement rate commensurate with the colony's share of, the burden. Huch had been done to relieve the situation in Malaysia and it was reasonable to expect that Hong Kong should now nove up in the resettlement league table, though it had to be recognised that Thailand and Indonesia also had serious refugee problems which merited the attention of the international community.

3.

Frau Dr Heide-Blöch said that, because of the important role played by the Länder in the FRG resettlement programme (see inter alia our telno_445), it would be important for us to keep the Länder authorities and FRG public opinion aware of Hong Kong's predicament. Dr Stumpf's visit last month (as a direct result of which Baden-Württemberg had agreed to accept a group of 125 refugees from Hong Kong) had helped to increase public awareness of the colony's problems; it might be worthwhile for the Hong Kong Government to consider whether any similar exercises could be mounted. Hong Kong had also received some excellent press coverage (I suspect this is due in no small measure to the visits by German journalists to the colony that were organised during the Autumn); anything that could be done to keep up media interest in the colony's refugee problen would be helpful.

RESTRICTED

/4. Frau Dr Heide-3135ch

1.