TNAG-0971-FCO40-1190-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-the-UK-1980 — Page 162

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Mr Morrice

Mr Williams on

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VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG

Flu.

1.

Mr Goddard in the Home Office rang to say that they had called forward and not cancelled the total of 797 refugees intended to arrive within the month of April. Up to the middle of the month 310 had arrived in the UK. It seemed unlikely that sufficient could arrive to fill the total of those called forward for the month. The problem was the difficulty in obtaining air passages, in particular the reduction in British Airways services since 1 April.

2. I explained to Mr Goddard that BCAL would not start services before August. We agreed that it looked as though there might be a practical problem over transport over the next 4 months. He undertook to get JCRV to telephone Mr Chatterton in Immigration in Hong Kong to discuss the problem. The Home Office are clearly anxious to preempt criticism from Hong Kong for this month and I think they are right to take the initiative over the transport question.

14 April 1980

R D Clift

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