TNAG-1071-FCO40-1321-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-other--1981 — Page 3

Embér

12/11

The Gift. his offer some

turpe

The problem of

the Dutch sung verever but

like of refugees generally.

Iwilurem

P J Williamson Esq

RESTRICTED

12.41.8.

Hong Kong & General Dept FCO

AT MON

BRITISH EMBASSY

THE HAGUE

LAST PAPER

11 November, 1981

HKK 243/4

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY MO. 51

13 Nov 1984

DESK OFFICEA

INDEX

Dear

Mr.

williamson,

N

PA

17/0

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES:

RESETTLEMENT IN THE NETHERLANDS

1. In his teleletter to you of 26 October, Richard Margolis asked us to prod the Dutch about the backlog of ship-rescue cases awaiting resettlement in the Netherlands. I have now discussed this in depth with the desk officer concerned at the MFA.

2. Lapre readily acknowledged that the Dutch had been tardy in accepting refugees from the transit camps in Hong Kong. There were two reasons for the delay. First, there had been a dispute between the Ministries of Justice and Social Affairs on the one hand and the Dutch NGO responsible for refugee welfare on the other. The latter had been criticised for their "over-progressive policies" (I believe in connection with refugees from Latin America) and as a result they refused to process refugees from South East Asia and their government grant was withdrawn. As a result of this dispute the Dutch had had to slow down the rate at which they absorbed Vietnamese refugees. Second, the Dutch had come under very severe pressure from Singapore and Malaysia to speed up the rate at which they took refugees from transit camps in those two countries. Lapre said that the authorities in the Netherlands had always appreciated the willingness of the Hong Kong authorities to be flexible about departure dates and this flexibility had allowed the Dutch to concentrate on the more urgent business of taking refugees from other countries in the area where they were less well treated. Furthermore two Dutch ships had picked up refugees in the South China Sea and had subsequently sailed to Taiwan and Korea. Both those countries had refused to admit the refugees even for a brief period and they had had to be accepted urgently in the Netherlands, taking up places in reception centres which would otherwise have gone to some of those in Hong Kong.

RESTRICTED

13.

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