TNAG-1274-FCO40-1624-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 68

Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH

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My wake or T/23/12

180

HKK 243/1.

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N A Thorne Esq MANILA

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

INDEX

Telephone 01-

23 DEC 2283

authen

Your reference

Our reference

Date

23 December 1983

Dear Thome,

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES: MV HUPEH

1. As you will have seen from Peter Newton's teleletter of 18 November (not copied to everyone) we have been pressing the Home Office to reconsider the case of the Hupeh refugees on the basis of my letter of 13 May to Mrs Harris at Lunar House.

2. I have now received a reply to that letter. I am afraid it remains the Home Office view that they cannot agree to further concessions on the admission of Vietnamese refugees. The Home Office view also remains that we do not have any obligation in respect of guarantees issued on behalf of Hong Kong registered ships.

3.

Officials at Lunar House say however, that when they discussed the case with Landau, the UNHCR representative in London (who has just left for a new posting in Canberra), he said the number of refugees had now been reduced from eight to two. The Home Office refrained from explicitly drawing the inference that this should make their rejection of the Hupeh case easier to accept. Since we (or at least the Home Office) have been impervious to the argument that with the number of refugees down from 115 to 8 they should be easier to accept here, it would be hard to maintain that UNHCR in the Philippines should find it easier to keep the refugees now that numbers have fallen from eight to two. However, it may be that with the very small number remaining, UNHCR officials' concern will abate somewhat.

4.

I

But, however small, it is still a case for us to consider. wonder if Alan Mason in Hong Kong could comment on the practicalities of now taking these two ''to continue to pursue their resettlement opportunities' there, as the resettlement guarantee promised.

!

cc: D Santry Esq, SPD DTP

Mr Hoare, HKD

A K Mason Esq, Hong Kong

чаши ен

CM J Segar

South East Asian Department