TNAG-1372-FCO40-1818-Ministerial-visits-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 255

D

E

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Vietnamese Refugees in Hong Kong

to the

current situation.

23. The attached policy paper and HKD's covering submission of 18 April, explain fully the background

The Secretary of State

decided in response to the submission that the

possibility of repatriating refugees involuntarily to

Vietnam should not be pursued. He agreed that we

should seek to persuade the Home Office that the UK

should both take the 400-500 family reunion cases, and

also indicate a willingness to accept further (perhaps

undefined) numbers for resettlement here in future

years.

24. Meanwhile in April the Home Affairs Sub-Committee on Race Relations and Immigration (SCORRI) published a report entitled "Refugees and Asylum with Special

Reference to the Vietname se"

I t recommended

inter alia that the closed camps

in Hong Kong should

be abolished and their inmates transferred to open centres; that the UK's immigration criteria for family reunion cases should be relaxed in respect of

Vietnamese in camp s in countries of temporary asylum;

and that this UK initiative should be used to attract

offers of additional resettlement places from other

countries for refugees now in Hong Kong.

25. After lengthy correspondence between the

the Secretary

of State and the Home Secretary, the Home Office have

agreed to accept the family reunion cases recommended

by SCORRI (some 500); and, depending оп other

countries' willingness to respond to Hong Kong's

needs, to consider accepting further limited numbers of refugees from Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Government

have similarly agreed to consider absorbing into Hong

Kong a limited number of Vietnamese refugees of ethnic Chinese origin who are at present in open camps in the

territory, provided this forms part of a concerted to reduce drastically the size of

the refugee camp population in Hong Kong. Hong Kong

international effort to

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