TNAG-1273-FCO40-1623-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 112

UNS 243/7

Mr Adams

Parliamentary Unit

DESK

CONFIDENTIAL

HKCK 24311

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APR 1983

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74-714

Mr Heave (26)

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RIA 1/4

PQ BY MR GREGOR MACKENZIE: INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM TOWARDS REFUGEES

1.

I submit a draft answer, background and supplementaries to Mr Gregor Mackenzie's Question for Oral Answer on 13 April. Legal Advisers, NTD, HKGD and EESD agree. The Home Office have also been consulted.

2.

Mr Mackenzie has not asked questions about refugees before. The problems most likely to give rise to supplementary questions seem to be: the Vietnamese and Chinese refugees in Hong Kong, the admission of Polish refugees to this country and the repatriation of the Romanian, Stancu Papasoiu. The supplementaries accordingly cover these subjects, but on the question of admitting the Romanian and refugees from Poland, I recommend that the Minister should refer (in his answer to supplementaries 11 and 12) to the statements by Home Office Ministers who lead in these matters.

3.

On the question of the closed centres in Hong Kong (supple- mentary 7) the Minister answering should be aware that we have not hitherto been obliged to acknowledge that these centres put Hong Kong in breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The line proposed will serve to answer the direct question, if it should be asked.

6 April 1983

Cc: Mr Anderson, Legal Advisers

HKGD EESD SAD

CONFIDENTIAL

NCR Williams

United Nations Department