An employer will be entitled to dismiss any Vietnamese refugee whom he employs if the refugee fails or refuses to produce for inspection the refugee card held by him or if, on the decision of the Director of Immigration, the refugee ceases to be "lawfully employable.
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There will be adequate provisions protecting employers from liability (e.g. severance pay) arising from the dismissal of refugees under (c) above.
The above provisions will enable the Director of Immigration to prevent Vietnamese refugees generally from working should this be considered necessary and, in particular, to take additional measures to stop individual Vietnamese refugees from work if they persistently breach conditions of stay, for example, by refusing offers of resettlement. UNHCR supports the latter proposal: it has not been consulted on the former. In either case this situation would be achieved either by withdrawing the refugee card from the individual or all refugees and re-issuing a new refugee card(s) endorsed with prohibition from employment.
Public Relations
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There is unlikely to be any sympathy for refugees who are prohibited from work because they have breached their conditions of stay, particularly in the case of their unreasonable refusal of offers of resettlement. No adverse local reaction to the proposal is therefore envisaged although some critical comment from overseas may be possible.
Publicity
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Publicity will be as proposed in paragraph 14(c) of memorandum XCC(81)46 and in addition will explain the new measures to employers and also refugees.
Advice Sought
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(a)
Members will be asked to advise whether:
the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 1981 at Annex A
to this memorandum should be introduced into the Legislative Council; and
CONFIDENTIAL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.