TNAG-1185-FCO40-1487-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-the--1982 — Page 45

BACKGROUND

Hong Kong is concerned at the continued high level of refugee

arrivals particularly in the summer (more than 7,500 this year),

while resettlement places (principally in the US who have cut

down from 1,500 to 250 a month) have fallen sharply, despite

the best efforts of UNHCR. Unless refugee departures from

Vietnam drop sharply next year as a result of the discouraging

rate of resettlement, Hong Kong will face a build up of new

arrivals, and increasing difficulty in finding places for the

40% hard core cases who have been there more than two years.

Our

We continue to lobby, eg, the US (Ambassador Eugene Douglas

was here last month), the Australians, Swedes, French etc,

but are not in a position to help Hong Kong ourselves.

Vietnamese refugee programme has not been an unqualified success

and in any case, apart from family reunion cases, the UK is

not the country the refugees want to go to.

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