TNAG-1392-FCO40-1864-Future-of-Hong-Kong-briefing-for-meetings-and-visits-1985 — Page 232

CONFIDENTIAL

Scre

X

How Is

claring

would cover only those who could be classified as "economic migrants" and any actual repatriation would have to be based on

assurances from the Vietnamese of humane treatment. If we did

reach agreement with the Vietnamese there would be immense

difficulties about the physical process of repatriating unwilling

victims.

4. In fact, I think it unlikely that we will succeed in obtaining Vietnamese agreement to a repatriation scheme, certainly

with the sort of safeguards we would consider essential. Such a

pessimistic assessment does not undermine the case for trying.

I believe we have an obligation to Hong Kong to show that we are making every possible effort to deal with their concerns. As the paper points out, illegal immigrants from China (most of whom have relatives in Hong Kong) have been repatriated unwillingly for

years. Chinese in Hong Kong are naturally indignant that Vietnamese (with no similar connections) are treated differently. Furthermore, despite the criticism of even an attempt to discuss repatriation, there are some advantages in news about such efforts leaking. It would help to alert international opinion and other governments to the continuing gravity of the problem and would act as a lever for other countries to accept more (ie be a

tonic for the "compassion fatigue" referred to in the paper). It might also be something of a deterrent to economic migrants

from Vietnam thinking of heading for Hong Kong.

5. If we are to pursue this course, however, I think we should

tell UNHCR what we are doing. We must expect them to express reservations, perhaps strongly, even though the paper points out that there are divided views on this issue within UNHCR. It would be an important of explaining our position to Parliament, if this had to be done, to say that we had told UNHCR.

Le

CONFIDENTIAL

D C Wilson