115
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
From The Minister of State
Richard Luce MP
31 January 1985
ник HÜK 0492
Dear lan.
In my speech winding up the debate on the Second Reading of the Hong Kong Bill on 21 January, I said that I would write to those who had raised points that I felt I had not answered. You referred to the position of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong.
We are very much aware of the plight of the 11,900 refugees who are still in Hong Kong. Over the past few years Britain has played a major role in tackling the problem of Indo-Chinese refugees. We have accepted some 19,000 refugees, most of them from Hong Kong, for resettlement here. We also have a continuing international commitment to resettle family reunion and ship rescue cases. We maintain regular contact with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other countries to find permanent solutions for all Indo-Chinese refugees, including those who are at present in Hong Kong. We are most anxious to bring about an early solution of the problem.
We are making every effort, in co-operation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other countries, to seek permanent solutions for the refugees who are in Hong Kong and other places of first asylum. It has been argued that if Britain were to accept a further quota, Canada and the US might respond by increasing their level of resettlement from Hong Kong. Some resettlement countries have said that they would be unwilling to raise their quotas of refugees from Hong Kong until Britain took the lead in accepting more, and this does make it difficult for us to apply pressure on other countries to take more Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong. On the other hand it is unfortunately also the case that no third country has said positively that it will take more refugees if Britain does so. As you no doubt know, the Sub-Committee on Race Relations and Immigration is currently looking at this subject.
Ian Wrigglesworth Esq MP
House of Commons
London SW1A OAA
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