TNAG-1274-FCO40-1624-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 124

Secondary Settlement

in reception at the end of the previous year and receiving and housing the steady flow of boat rescue and family reunion arrivals which continues still; working with the elements which make up the Vietnamese community, with the statutory services, national and local, and with the community generally to help the Vietnamese to be self supporting economically and socially; and, where this could be helped by action to improve access to national or local services, arguing for and helping with such action.

5.

At the beginning of the financial year 35 refugees remained in reception centres. So far this year 66 have been received as boat rescues and some 38 are due to be received by the end of October with a possible 114 outstanding. There appears to be no end in sight to the flight of refugees from Vietnam. Therefore government, local government and the agencies may well need to remain in partnership for several years in the business of housing and helping settle them.

6.

Throughout the Vietnamese programme the agencies have had to rely on the response of local housing authorities and housing associations to the Committee's appeals to provide housing for the refugees. No special funds were provided by central government for this purpose but despite the additional strain on their resources and the danger of hostile local reaction the necessary housing has been provided. Some authorities and associations have now been approached for help half a dozen times, sometimes for considerable numbers of houses where, for example, there is a need to keep refugees who fled from the same village in close settlement.

7. The difficulty of housing boat rescue refugees in these circumstances (they may stay in reception centres for the best part of a year) are compounded by the need to find housing also for family reunion arrivals, particularly those coming from Vietnam through the Orderly Departure Programme (ODP). The families can be large and it is not possible always for them to join their relatives in housing immediately. The agencies place such families in temporary hostels, with minimum funding from the Home Office. 408 have come through the ODP in the first five months of this financial

year.

8.

There is a related and significant phenomenon of secondary movement by the Vietnamese from their initial area of settlement to which we must draw attention. The centres of attraction are London (1,000 have moved to the capital in the last 12 months and there are now perhaps 4,000), Birmingham (1,100), Leeds (600), Greater Manchester (600) and Bradford (300). Numbers in Scotland which at one point stood at over 1,100 have now fallen to just over 800.

In recent months considerable difficulties have arisen in the major population centres as a result. This secondary movement, which has also been observed in other settlement countries, is inevitable as the Vietnamese seek the security of larger communities and the better prospects of employment and education generally to be found in cities. The agencies have not encouraged movement but it has made more work for them. Particularly in London, they have been brought in by housing authorities and by the Vietnamese to advise in cases of overcrowding and homelessness. Another consequence of movement has been to leave the most vulnerable refugees even more isolated in smaller communities with problems on which the agencies are asked to advise.

9. The refugees are of course free to move as they choose, and there could be no question of attempting to control their movement. We believe however that what is happening makes particularly important our efforts to make the community support and services which attract these secondary movements available in as many towns as possible so as to avoid the problems which might

2.