TNAG-1277-FCO40-1627-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 19

市政司署

香港下亞厘畢道

DIEL

Rok pl.

Security Branch

(92)

房のい

GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG

My Walker fr.

* OUR REF.: (4) in L/M to SRD 403/3/C

**YOUR REF.: HK 243

18 November 1983

R. J. F. Hoare Esq., Hong Kong Department,

Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

HKK 243/2

RECEIVED IN REVIS RY 28 NOV 1983

REGISTRY

Dear Richard,

Call by Mr. Funseth

PA

ution Tekun

Sou

Thank you for your letter of 4 November 1983, which both David Jeaffreson and I read with interest before our discussion with Burton Levin, US Consul-General, on 16 November.

2.

Little of real substance emerged from our talk with Levin. He too reassured us that US resettlement efforts were not about to be diverted from either Hong Kong, or from the Vietnamese problem in general, elsewhere. (Nevertheless, this programme is still subject to the most extraordinary vagaries : we have since been informed by the Consulate's Refugee office that our "quota" for December will be only 100 places, while in January and February it will be back to 250. The explanation given is that there is an overflow at Bataan, and we are frankly advised that Thailand and Malaysia are being cut back much less in December for purely political reasons). We then discussed our general interpretation of how 1983 had gone in refugee terms, the effect and future of the "closed centre policy", and our prognosis for 1984.

3. Turning to what Funseth said to you, the only specific point I would make is that we must disabuse State Department officials of the assumption that "most" of our arrivals are, and have long been, from North Vietnam. This is not so. Until 1983, no more than a third of our arrivals each year were from North Vietnam : even this year, slightly less than 50% have come from north of the 17th Parallel. We

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/understand