TNAG-1274-FCO40-1624-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 49

extract from recor attache

UNHCR Executive Committee Meeting (Geneva 10-19 October 1983

g.

Mr Patrick Williamson, then Hong Kong's Deputy Secretary for

Security, attended as a member of the UK delegation. In the margins

he spoke to the Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Ha Van Lau,

(poca goda fabached record refers) about voluntary repatriation record attached Mr Ha apparently said that Vietnam would, as a humanitarian country, have to consider sympathetically any such requests and that these should be forwarded to Hanoi with full details of previous and present personal circumstances. However the primary consideration would be state

security, ie whether or not those concerned had previously been

connected with the Americans or the South Vietnamese Government

E 10.

The Australian delegation called a meeting of those who had

attended the Honolulu conference together with the UK, the FRG, and France. They said it was important to keep up the momentum of

the Honolulu conference. Officials of the 7 countries should meet

again to prepare the ground for further Ministerial-level meetings. They also felt strongly that it was very necessary to talk to the Vietnamese about reducing the flow of boat people. During the

conference they had held discussions with the Vietnamese about the

return of unaccompanied minors and elderly refugees.

Visit to the UK by Mr Robert Funseth (2-3 November 1983

11. Mr Funseth is Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Refugee

Programmes at the US State Department. At a meeting with FCO

officials he expressed the view that in the short term (2-3 years)

the priority should be to do everything possible to discourage departures from Vietnam. (He cited Hong Kong's closed camp policy

as a useful measure in this context). During this period

resettlement should continue at about the present level, to reduce

existing camp populations but without attracting more departures.

At some point it would be necessary to address the question of those left behind in camps. He believed that most ASEAN countries accepted this scenario, and that they therefore did not expect

resettlement levels to increase significantly in the short term.

The US had given no specific assurances to them that first asylum

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