TNAG-1274-FCO40-1624-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 228

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HKG

arrange for their reunion in Hong Kong. S for S responded that this proposal also placed the in some political difficulty, given that there might be as many as 10 million Chinese waiting to join close relatives in Hong

Kong, and only 75 legal immigrants were allowed to enter from China each day.

S for S observed that

it was strange that the Chinese had never raised this with HKG, and he felt that the simplest solution would be for the Chinese to issue these 21 persons with exit permits as part of the daily "quota". It would be difficult for HKG to justify to the Hong Kong people allowing these 21 VRS to jump the enormous queue of persons awaiting to immigrate to Hong Kong from China. Mr. Moussalli responded that he had not been aware of the legal immigration arrangements from China. Mr. Bari observed that if these 21 persons could enter HK outside the "quota", HK might expect some reciprocal arrangement in respect of VRS here wishing to join family members in China; however, both he and

Mr. Moussalli acknowledged that such applications were unlikely.

5.

PAS (S) asked Mr. Moussalli for his views on the prospects for a durable solution to the VR problem. The latter observed that in the absence of local absorption (which was politically unacceptable to asylum countries), and with the fall in overseas resettlement (which in any case was not the ideal solution for most VRS), the aim of UNHCR and all others involved must be to keep open the door of voluntary return to Vietnam. Mr. Moussalli acknowledged that at present the Vietnamese authorities showed no interest in this. Mr. Bari clarified that the current Vietnamese position was that only those who left Vietnam involuntarily could return voluntarily. He noted that involuntary departures were not in any event refugees, and Malaysia and Indonesia had achieved the repatriation of some such cases by direct contact with the Vietnamese, without involving UNHCR at all.

In conclusion Mr. Moussalli observed that the present impasse could only be resolved by a regional solution, now that the "contract" between all parties

6.

/arranged

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