BY BAG
CONFIDENTIAL
FROM: THE HAGUE
TO: FCO
SAVING TELEGRAM
TELEGRAM NO? SAVING OF 15 FEBRUARY 1980
HKK2H34
12.
16
FILES
SEAD
UND
FED
ECD
PUSD
OID
IPD
Repeated for information Saving to UKMis Geneva, EC posts FCO TELNO 1 SAVING TO BONN: VIETNAMESE BOAT REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
20.2 1. We spoke as instructed to the Deputy Director for General Affairs at the MFA. De Graaff explained that the Netherlands policy remained that they accepted the advice of the UNHCR on the country or countries from which they took Vietnamese boat refugees (Hervey's letter of 21 November to Flower, SEAD).
NEWS D MAED
2.
3.
De Graaff made two further comments:
(a) The figures for the Netherlands in table 2 of FCO telno 2 Saving to Bonn seemed to include those boat people picked up by Dutch vessels and temporarily landed in Hong Kong and Singapore. The Netherlands had not taken any refugees who
had landed independently in Hong Kong.
(b) The Netherlands had just told UNHCR that they wished to begin their 1980 programme by taking refugees with families already in the Netherlands. They knew of some 1,600 Vietnamese whose relatives in the Netherlands had applied for them to be admitted; but about 1,200 of these were still in Vietnam. the remaining 400 34 were in Hong Kong, but de Graaff could not guarantee that they would all be accepted. The remainder
Of
of the Dutch quota for 1980 would be filled as before on the recommendation of UNHCR.
As we have pointed out before, if the Dutch are to be persuaded to take refugees from Hong Kong this will have to be done by UNHCR. Is this also a matter which could be legitimately discussed in the Political Co-operation framework, as an extension of the general discussion of Indo-China refugees in the Asia Working Group? Few of our partners in the Nine seem to have made special efforts to help Hong Kong.
TAYLOR
PS PS/LPS
PS/MR BLAKER
PS/PUS=
SIR D MAITLAND
MR CORTAZZI
MR MURRAY
MR STRATTON
LORD N G LENNOX
ADDITIONAL DISTN.
BOAT PEOPLE
=
CONFIDENTIAL
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