TNAG-0971-FCO40-1190-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-the-UK-1980 — Page 151

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British Embassy

16 Pho Ly Thuong Kiet Hanoi

Telephone 2349 2510

AKK 243/2

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51

09 MAY 1980

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

REGISTRY

CC FIXED

A Bini 43

Yeats

7/5

33A

Malcolm Chadderton Esq

Immigration Department

International Bdg

141 wes Voeux кd Central

Hong Kong

Mr. Debto

PA

Action Taken

nis

713.5

Pl. put this with all the pompers

Our reference 243/9

Date

th refugees for Mr. Owns call & let me have HANCI EMBASSÝ: IMMIGRATION WORK by 10 am

22 April 1980

Be This

M. Phys.

мо

масолиет

9 May 18/58/5

1.

I enclose a copy of a letter from the Ambassador to Donald Murray requesting help from the British authorities in handling the ever growing volume of family reunification cases in Vietnam. The Ambassador's letter was prompted by the rapid rise since last November in the number of cases approved for entry to the UK. but over half the applications we handle are for Hong Kong. We have asked the Foreign Office to send out an expert to examine ways in which the hanaling of UK cases could be streamlined or transferred to London. The purpose of this letter is to explain how we propose to streamline the handling of Hong Kong cases.

2.

In his letter the Ambassador estimated that we were. receiving roughly fifty letters a week from Vietnamese applying to emigrate to the UK or Hong Kong. Yesterday alone we received fifty-four, and the weekly rate is now over one hundred. In addition to some 30-40 new cases

a week, we are getting a spate of replies to the letters which hark Wynburne has sent out since his arrival. It is quite Ilain that we cannot hope to keep abreast of this volume of work, and we have therefore decided to concentrate our efforts for the time being on those who have already been accepted by the UK or Hong kong authorities, and whom we are therefore in a position to help straight away.

3. Most of those who write to us to apply for entry to Hong K ng claim to have a close relative there. Up to now we have invited all such applicants to complete visa application forms. we have noticed, however, that many applications from people claiming to have sons, mothers, etc. in Hong Kong are eventually turned down. we clearly cannot sort out the genuine cases ourselves. Therefore, in order to save unnecessary correspondence on cases that stand no chance, we propose in future to send you copies of all the letters we receive so that you can decide which applicants should be rejected straight away, and which should be sear

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