TNAG-1275-FCO40-1625-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 98

A

CONFIDENTIAL

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

HKCK 243/2

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

17 MAY 1983

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

PA

Telephone 01-

233 5073

や

REGISTRY

Action Taken

AF 1915

(66

Mrs G Harris

B1 Division

Immigration Department

Home Office

Lunar House CROYDON

Your reference

FA 243/5

Our reference

Date

13 May 1983

Dear Mrs Kamis,

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES RESCUED BY M V HUPEH

1.

52

I copied to you recently a teleletter from Dr Carter in Manila about a number of refugee cases including those (now 8) rescued by the Hong Kong registered MV Hupeh in 1980 and landed in Manila.

2.

The background, which you may not have available on your own files, is that the Hupeh reached Manila on 10 July 1980 with 115 Vietnamese rescued at sea. To facilitate disembarcation we sought Hong Kong's confirmation that we could issue on their behalf a resettlement guarantee: ie that the Hong Kong government would be responsible for resettling the refugees whom the UNHCR could not resettle elsewhere. Hong Kong took the line that while they would not wish to commit themselves to resettlement in Hong Kong, they were prepared to allow any refugees who had not been resettled from

the Philippines 'within a reasonable period' to come to a UNHCR camp in Hong Kong 'to continue to pursue their resettlement opportuni- ties'.

No one in the end insisted on the usual three months' time limit but it is clear from correspondence from Manila that by now more than three years later - the Philippine authorities and UNHCR there are keen to dispose of the residue, though they now total only eight.

3. As you will know from your files, our Secretary of State minuted yours in December about the possibility of doing something more to ease Hong Kong's refugee burden. We included the case of the Hong Kong registered Po Yang which landed some refugees in Hong Kong in July 1981 and wanted the residue resettled in the UK.

4. Mr Whitelaw ruled out any change in our criteria for accenting the residues of ship rescues and Mr McDowall in his letter of 26 January to Patrick Williamson in Hong Kong (cony enclosed for ease of reference) explained that this should be taken to include the residual refugees from both the Po Yang and the Hupeh.

(This

/letter

CONFIDENTIAL