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not involve a commitment to receive a large number of
refugees, though it might be useful to press the voluntary
agencies to provide details of the number of cases they
can identify. There have also been, I gather, proposals
from the Ockenden Venture and the Save the Children Fund
to receive 20 orphans each from Hong Kong.
6.
There are also those rescued by Hong Kong
registered shipping. At present we look sympathetically,
on a case by case basis, on requests to give guarantees of
resettlement for boat people landed by United Kingdom
shipping in countries in the region so that they can be
quickly disembarked and not involve our shipping in
expensive delays. Those rescued by other British
shipping, such as Bermuda or Hong Kong-registered ships,
have been regarded as the responsibility of those
territories; but there have been very few cases so far.
In the last two years only one Hong Kong-registered ship
has rescued boat people and landed them in Hong Kong.
This was the Po Yang in July 1981. There were 42 refugees
on board, of whom 27 remain unresettled elsewhere.
Hong Kong, for obvious reasons, would hardly wish to set
a precedent by settling them in Hong Kong. But so long
as they remain in camps it becomes increasingly difficult
to press other flag states to take the refugees rescued
by their ships. A gesture to Hong Kong to take these 27 on
humanitarian grounds (quite without prejudice to our clear
policy of dealing with all such rescues, including those
by UK-registered shipping, on a purely case by case basis)
would again be a help to Hong Kong's refugee administration
out of all proportion to the very small numbers of refugees
we would be receiving.
7.
I know these two ideas have been discussed
during the last year by our officials.
But I am more than
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