TNAG-0971-FCO40-1190-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-the-UK-1980 — Page 163

A, B

C,D

HKK 243/2

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. FIDENTIAL

16 APR 1980

Mr Murray.

DESK OFFICER INDEX

PA

REGISTRY Action Taken

Aw

Mr William J.PA

14.4

So far so gors, wat w

longe

(27)

bit a so bank, cmore aut mus

Comment on an X and wonde

the 14-16, lag,

Antenna tumung

REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM, FAMILY REUNIONS AND HANOI EMBASSY WORKLOAD

PROBLEM

1.

"/

How to handle the flow of requests for Vietnamese nationals to come to this country on family reunion funds arising from the admission

of refugees.

RECOMMENDATION

2. I submit a draft letter to Hanoi in reply to Mr Margetson's letters of 21 March. This sets out the results of the meeting which I chaired on 9 April, and serves also as an interim reply to Mr Angel's letter of 28 March and to Mr Margetson's letter of 27 March.

Home Office concur.

MVD,

1

BACKGROUND

3. The reply is necessarily provisional,, but is positive on Mr Margetson's request for an early specialist visitor. The meeting assumed that the visitor would not make any direct contacts with th 2 Vietnamese, but could usefully talk to UNHCR staff in Vietnam as well as helping to sort out the workload,

4. On the question of whether the 2,000 visa promise letter holders (virtually none of whom seem likely to get exit visas in the fore- seeable future) should be deducted from the 10,000 quota, the Home Office representative seemed reasonably confident that the Home Office Official recommendation would be that they should not. Home Office are well aware of the likely Hong Kong reaction. Meanwhile they are slowing down the rate of processing applications.

The

5. The meeting also briefly discussed a request from UNHCR for a new UK quota, and agreed on the lines of a draft which the Department will clear and submit shortly.

ছ

RP Flower

South East Asian Department

11 April 1980

cc: Mr Figg, MVD, UND, HKGD

CONFIDENTIAL