TNAG-0971-FCO40-1190-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-the-UK-1980 — Page 133

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KF X Burnk Eag SEAD FCG

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HKK 243/2

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51 1 1 JUN 1980

DESK OFFICER INDEX

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REGISTRY

Action Taken

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TISA

REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM: FAMILY REUNION

John Margatson kindly sent me a copy of his latter 243/9 of 21 May to Donald Murray about the policy aspects of family reunification cases in Vietnam.

2.

I have already recorded (my letter of 2 May) our concern that refugees taken directly from Vietnam should not count against the UK 10,000 quota. Jamieson's visit to Hanoi showed that large numbers could be involved, especially

On if decisions continue to be made on an ad hoc basis. humanitarian grounds it is understandable that a high priority is given to reuniting close family members. However, I hope that any UK policy guidelines for family reunion cases will A designed not to lay you open to a fleed of applications. large pool of potential family reunion cases from Vietnam could become a significant element in deciding in due course whether a further quota of refugees could be taken from Hong Kong once the 10,000 programme is completed.

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Initially ve here pursued a fairly generous policy for authorizing visas for relatives in Vietnam of residents of Hong Kong or of Vietnamese stranded here after the fall of Saigon. We found however that this generated an immense volume of applications. A pattern quickly grew up of arranged marriages and false documentation of other family members in Vietnam by those given visas, who often had a long wait before being given permission by the Vietnamese authorities to leave on one of our charter flights. (Jamieson was briefed by Immigration Deportmant on all these problems when he passed through here on his way back from Hanoi). We therefore evolved a (confidential) policy, applying only to relatives of sponsors who could establish that they had been legally in Hong Kong on or before 30 April 1975, under which vieas would only be given to wives, husbands, unmarried dependent children under 21 and one aged dependent parent living alone in Vietnam whose main family unit was in Hong Kong. The policy also allows visas to be issued in cases involving particularly strong humanitarian grounds. You might find that a similar arrangement would be suitable for, the UK. Certainly, it would worry us here a great deal if as a result of using wider criteria for family reunion the UK saddled itself with a commitment which had the

CONFIDENTIAL

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