TNAG-1187-FCO40-1489-Hong-Kong-s-closed-camp-policy-for-Vietnamese-refugees-1982 — Page 48

Jul Hartling

- 2 -

August 19, 1982

We know full well that the UNHCR's ability to interfere with decisions of the Hong Kong and British authorities is limited. We are aware of Hong Kong's not being included within the geographic ambit of the UN Convention on Refugees. We are also aware, however, of the most commendable position of your Office that persons who meet the UNHCR criteria qualify for protec- tion regardless of whether or not they are in a country that is a party to the Convention or the 1967 Protocol..

Still, if it were not for the expectation of the Hong Kong/British authorities that the UNHCR would pay one-half of the cost of running the prison camps for refugees, we may not have addressed this letter to you. But as there is the stated intention of using the prestige of your Office to justify the closed camps, we wanted to share our anguish with you.

This, if

There is another reason which, while not directly related to recent events in Hong Kong, does touch on them. We have been advised that unaccom- panied Vietnamese minors are no longer certified by your Hong Kong represen- tative for inclusion in the U.S. admission program. Instead, we were told, they are to be returned to Vietnam once Hanoi gives its consent. true, is a very disturbing development. It can be safely assumed that Vietnamese children who made the long trip from Vietnam to Hong Kong in small boats were sent out by their parents. All of us active in resettlement work know of the terrible dilemma these parents face when they entrust their children to would-be refugees in the hope that they will make it safely to a country of first asylum, knowing all the time what the odds of not making it are. Such parents are motivated by the expectation that a child sent out to Hong Kong will join a relative in the United States or elsewhere and thereby have an assured future. Thus it is incomprehensible that a relative who claims a child finds his or her resettlement barred by action of your Office. Basic to all of this is, of course, the question whether refugee children can be repatriated against the wishes of their parents.

Since parents in Vietnam, if asked officially, cannot admit to having carefully prepared the clandestine departure of their children and since parents in Vietnam, if asked officially, would have to indicate their desire to have the children returned to Vietnam, consideration must be given to the real possibility that sending children back to Vietnam would violate the spirit as well as the letter of the Convention.

We know from the many meetings and contacts we have had with you that you will interpret the frankness of this letter as an expression of our concern and of the great respect we have for UNHCR's work and for you personally.

Sincerely yours,

WK:bf

Wells Klein

Chairman

Committee on Migration

and Refugee Affairs