TNAG-0974-FCO40-1193-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-other--1980 — Page 44

K.L. Stumpf

REPORT ABOUT GERMANY

HKCS

a) Stuttgart

M

April 27-April 29

;

SHELT NO

Sunday, 27.4.80: Meeting with Dr. Theodor Schober, President of

the "Diakonische Werk der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland" who

explained in detail the present difficult situation arising from the

large number of persons seeking political asylum in Germany (from

Pakistan, Afganistan, Sudan, Eritrea, Turkey, etc.), the

"Spaetheimkehrer" from Eastern Europe, the four million Gastarbeiter,

especially those of Turkish origin. He linked this statement with

the difficulties I may encounter when trying to draw the attention

of Germany to the unfinished business of resettling Vietnamese Boat

Refugees from Hong Kong.

In return I outlined the present situation in Hong Kong and asked him

to bring my plea for increased assistance to the attention of both

Government, the churches and the general public. He then phoned Dr.

Georg Huessler, President of the "Deutsche Caritasverband" who agreed

to meet Dr. Schober the next morning in Freiburg when both would

sign a letter addressed to Dr. Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Bundesaussen-

minister, to all Ministerpraesidenten of the "Laender", to all Heads

of the member churches of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland,

to all Directors of the regional Diakonische Werke in Germany and

to the regional coordinators of Church and Government. I then

drafted the text of the letter which was adopted with minor altera-

tions by Dr. Schober and Dr. Huessler. The letters were mailed on

April 28 (Appendix I).

Monday, 28.4.80: Meetings with staff members of the Asia Desk of

the Diakonische Werk, bringing them up-to-date with the Hong Kong

boat refugee problem. In the evening I was interviewed by Mrs.

Carla Steenberg, a free-lance writer and journalist with close contact to Radio, TV and the press. She has recently been concen-

trating on China and Hong Kong. In September 1979 she spent two

weeks in Hong Kong and has since then been stressing the need for increased assistance to Hong Kong's boat refugees, both financially and in regard to resettlement.

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