TNAG-1184-FCO40-1486-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-the--1982 — Page 17

K2

Our reference:

276

CONFIDENTIAL

'CC SEA

ec

286

data(a Relpt. HOME OFFICE Mrre J

HKK 243 Lunar House, Wellesley Road, CROYDON CR9 2BY

·Telephone: 01-686 0333, ext. 2341

IMG/82 98/1026/25

Your reference: HKK 243/1

љ

Mr R D Clift

Hong Kong and General Department Foreign & Commonwealth Office LONDON SW1A 2AH

Deer Clift секс

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES

This

of ignores the

See 290

ignores the fact that

the PMT has asked whated the done to help HK

ૐ

b) argues as if Hory King was

4 November 1982

on and

simply passing refugees straight carrying no burden ibelf.

c) ignore the fact that we ships

Brinst-gistered d) most important )

all

>

gnizes the

I can now let you have a more considered response to your letter of 28th October and the attached note on Vietnamese refugees. I have not consulted our Ministers but I can at least let you have the combined views of IND and the Voluntary Services Unit.

I would argue strongly that any proposal to increase the intake of Vietnamese refugees into this country must start with an assessment both of our existing Vietnamese commitment and the pressures on the UK to take refugees from other countries.

ELAA

By the end of September the UK had accepted a total of 16,536 Vietnamese refugees, though not all of them have come from Hong Kong (the figures in your paper relate to the end of June). In addition we have given authorisation for a further 2914 dependants to join Vietnamese already in this country. Many of these dependants are in Vietnam and only small numbers are being allowed to leave, but there is pressure on the Hanoi authorities to increase the flow and we must assume that the situation could change at any time. A further 600 family reunification applications are in the pipeline. Finally, there is the possibility of further boat rescues by UK registered ships, which would lead in turn to further family reunification cases.

In

It will take until the end of the year to empty reception centres of those received under the current programme and obtaining housing from local authorities who are offered no central government support with cash, has been a problem. his letter of 2 November Watts referred to the continuing cost of the Vietnamese programme. This is estimated to have cost £21.6m by the end of 1982/83 and yet the difficulties which the Vietnamese face in settlement are such that the Joint Committee for Refugees from Vietnam argues that more expenditure will be required in 1983/84.

Further afield, the Government is under pressure to accept Solidarity members seeking to leave Poland. The problems of cost and housing are such that it looks as if we will end up by making no more than a token gesture and this is a cause which I would have thought likely to attract more political and public sympathy than a further intake of Vietnamese refugees. In the course of the correspondence we have received sharp notes from No. 10 urging us to go slowly in view of our other refugee commitments. We are also under pressure to give

That

HK are more or less

fact refugees because HMG ex baking Forgher

Forgher measures.

beling the

/exceptional

because HMG expect them to. It is we who prevent them

PONFIDENTIAL

Plex connder & draft reply

V

stir