TNAG-0971-FCO40-1190-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-the-UK-1980 — Page 29

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VISIT TO HONG KONG - VIETNAMESE REFUGEES

New Quota for United Kingdom

1.

RECEIVED IN KALDE TAO. CA

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0 5 DEC1980

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During my visit to Hong Kong I discussed this with the Secretary for Security and at a round up meeting with the Governor and senior officials on 29 November. According to figures provided by the Secretary for Security, there will be about 21,000 refugees left in Hong Kong by the end of December (excluding those to be returned to China). An estimate of off-take to various countries for the first quarter of 1981 suggests that by the end of March the figure will have dropped to 14,000, allowing for a relatively small number of new arrivals.

2. Following the recent discussions between the Governor, the Secretary of State and the Home Secretary and the Home Secretary's recent message to Lord Carrington, it was accepted that the prospects for a new British quota were not bright. In the circumstances the Governor urged that a final decision should be delayed as late as possible. It should be possible to hold off until after the end of March. Although the British current quota would theoretically have been used up by then, there should still be some refugees due to be taken off and we could describe the quota as not quite finished. The point of this was that the Governor hoped that Lord Carrington could look at the problem when he came out at the end of March and, discuss it with his colleagues in London thereafter.

3. Hong Kong are prepared to revise very sharply downwards their estimates of the numbers which should be included in a new British quota. They suggest that this could be reduced from 5,000 to 2,000. An argument in favour of this figure is that it will represent approximately 16% of the remaining refugees. That percentage happens to have been the proportion fairly consistently taken by the United Kingdom over the past 2 years.

4.

I discussed with Hong Kong officials possible ways in which the Hong Kong Government might help to ease the position if a new British quota were agreed. There are a number of possibilities:

(a) A cash contribution by Hong Kong to help with the cost

of resettlement camps, housing etc. This is, under- standably, not much favoured in Hong Kong.

(b) Holding refugees in Hong Kong for much longer periods

than at present after they have been earmarked for the UK.

The object here would be to reduce the rate of flow to Britain and if possible to enable the resettlement facilities here to be reduced - eg the closure of a camp. It might be possible to combine this with the extension of English language training

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