TNAG-0974-FCO40-1193-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-other--1980 — Page 56

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Bergneustadt (Appendix 10). He believes that this will give me

the opportunity to meet a number of European leaders and to acquaint them with my mission.

8 p.m.:

Dinner with Mr. Volker Neumann MdB (SPD). Mr. Neumann, a lawyer, has also been in Hong Kong and is very impressed by what he

saw. He published a paper for the SPD Bundestagsfraktion "Enttaeu- schung in Hong Kong (Appendix 11). He told of internal power struggles, of unfair deals within government when it comes to the decision from where Vietnamese should be taken, the difficulties of seeing through the maze of conflicting authorities and how this is taken advantage of. He gave a number of examples of so-called "family reunion cases"

where family reunion was used as a cover-up for doing favours to some- one in high places. There is obviously no central authority responsible for the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees. The present fragment way of dealing is unsatisfactory and inefficient. Dr. Meinecke and his

Committee are trying to bring about changes.

Summary:

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1) No full agreement exists regarding the present quota of 20,000. The actual figure agreed upon by the Laender is slightly above

18,000.

2) No one is able to say how many refugees have arrived under the

quota. The figure mentioned is 14,000 to 15,000. The balance

is taken up in full for Family Reunion Cases and by those picked

up by the "German Ship".

3)

There is growing concern within government and the public about

the ever growing number of Asylanten from Asia, the Middle East

and Africa (40,000 in 1979 and 100,000 expected to arrive in 1980). Everyone blames the very generous law which is to be changed within this year.

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