TNAG-1185-FCO40-1487-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-the--1982 — Page 10

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On particular points, in paragraph 33, the report highlights the problem of unaccompanied minors rescued by British shipping and the importance of finding the right destinations for them. As the report makes clear elsewhere (para 12), guarantees for ship rescues are normally issued to receive those not resettled elsewhere within three months. In the interim UNHCR do their best to identify appropriate destinations, which will include for any unaccompanied minors, countries where their own relatives have settled. It does of course depend on those countries accepting the minors. At the same time UNHCR can normally make available to our Embassies or High Commissions details of all those rescued so that unaccampanied minors can be identified; and, if it looks as if they will fall to us to resettle, at least some months warning can be gained.

5. Family reunification (paras 67-69) is clearly important, and it is disappointing that such a small percentage of candidates for the United Kingdom have been granted exit visas by the Vietnamese authorities under the ODP. We have pointed out to them on a number of occasions this year that priority appears to be being given to some of those countries with the largest number of candidates. At the same time the processing of orderly departures has always been slow not least because of the additional bureaucracy required of the Vietnamese and their perhaps understandable caution in handling prospective emigrants. However our Embassy in Hanoi works very closely with the UNHCR team on the spot and we hope with perseverance to secure a reasonable and consistent flow of family reunions.

6. Reunions for those still in refugee camps is also an important consideration for us and particularly for Hong Kong. The tighter criteria which have applied since July 1981 to cases of family reunification have not only left a number of disappointed relatives in Hong Kong but have slowed down the rate of uptake from the territory at exactly the time when the Hong Kong government needs to persuade all potential countries of resettlement to take as many as possible. It would be a great help in managing Hong Kong's continuing refugee burden if some relaxation of these criteria for example as outlined in para 65 of the report might be allowed.

Yours ever,

Peter Meritor

P M Newton

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South East Asian Department

Cc:

Mr JW Smith, HKGD

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