TNAG-0971-FCO40-1190-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-the-UK-1980 — Page 201

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in Hong Kong; and it is important for Hong Kong itself that its Government

should be relieved of this part of their very large refugee population.

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critical factor, however, is the time refugees spend in reception centres

once they are here. Once the refugees have arrived in this country it is

vital to their ability to adjust to our society that they should spend as short/time in these reception centres/consistent with the need for some initial orientation and basic language training. It would be extremely

damaging to the morale of the refugees were they to spend excessive periods in

reception centres, and the Government would not want the refugees coming here

to be exposed to that risk. Everything depends, therefore, on the speed at which

refugees can be moved from reception centres into permanent accommodation.

The Joint Committee has agreed, I understand, that about 3 months is the

right period for a refugee to spend in a reception centre. If this can be

achieved in practice it ought to be possible to take in the refugees from

our quota still remaining in Hong before the end of this year. We must

do our very best to achieve this. If a brisk rate of resettlement is not

maintained we are, in effect, condemning refugees to spend longer in the

conditions in Hong Kong. We must not fall into the trap of being so concerned

to achieve ideal conditions of education, housing or employment for individual

refugees already here that we lose sight of the needs of those still to come

from Hong Kong. It is necessary to strike the right balance between caring

for those already here and caring for those yet to come. I would ask you to look very carefully at the way you are striking this balance. We also need

to keep constantly under review our administrative structures and procedures

resettlement and to avoid any delay in/calling forward refugees to fill vacancies.

I very

much hope therefore that it will be possible to achieve the rate of resettlement

at least 700-800 a month which will be necessary if we are to achieve our ain

of bringing the remaining refugees from the Hong Kong quota here not later than the end of the year.

Housing

The resettlement rate, of course, depends primarily on the availability of

the right sort of housing. Here there is still much to be done.

I am very

grateful to those housing authorities and housing associations who have already offered housing for the refugees and particularly to the CLC which has already offered up to 400 units-but the successful completion of the programme requires

that the flow of offers should be maintained over the coming months and

that there should be close liaison between local authorities and voluntary

agencies on the dates on which these houses can be made available. Some

authorities may have been hesitating before offering homes to the Vietnamese.

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