TNAG-1109-FCO40-1360-Visit-by-Margaret-Thatcher--UK-Prime-Minister--to-Hong-Kong--1982 — Page 14

Multi-Fibre Arrangement

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See Brief No 7.

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Vietnamese Refugees

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HMG agreed at Geneva in 1979 to take 10,000 Vietnamese

refugees from Hong Kong. This quota now fully committed.

Numbers resettled in UK in fact over 10,000 because of inclusion

of some 1,000 covered by quota agreed by previous administration,

plus boat rescue cases.

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Now over 13,000 refugees in Hong Kong awaiting

resettlement (including some 500 to be returned to China).

Arrivals in July were 1,613, highest monthly arrival figure

since July 1979, and nearly 50% of total arrivals in the

region. Australian and Canadian resettlement programmes

tailing off, and US criteria for resettlement tightened.

Number in Hong Kong at end 1982 likely to be at least as high

as end 1981, ie around 13,000. From July 1982 all new

arrivals placed in closed camps to await resettlement.

is intended to deter those, thought now to be a majority, who

leave Vietnam for economic reasons rather than political

persecution. However, indications so far are that it has not

succeeded as a deterrent, partly because of the difficulty of

getting the new policy through to those who wish to leave Vietnam.

Hong Kong wants UK commitment to continue so that

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This

other countries, particularly US, will be encouraged to maintain

off-takes. UNHCR has appealed to UK to institute new quota.

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