TNAG-1417-FCO40-1900-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 4

CODE 18-77

UNCLASSIFIED

Reference..

1) A

2)

Ar Lette

if

pa

SCORRA

Mrs Dunn, Parliamentary Unit

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES: SCORRI ENQUIRY

1.

Thank you for your minute of 13 February.

2512.

Your para 1a. We await the latest version of the UNHCR statistics, dated December 1984, which are being sent from Geneva and are due here this week.

2.

3. Your para 1b. We have now received an explanation from UNHCR of this discrepancy. The figure of 16,473 given in chart VI, entitled "Cumulative Permanent Solutions", of the September 1984 statistics, does not include Britain's intake (the figure of 2,036 given in chart VII) under the Orderly Departure Programme as we had previously assumed. As you will see, adding the two together, one gets a figure very close to the figure provided by the Home Office of 18,500 Indo-Chinese refugees, quoted in para 6 of the FCO memorandum.

4.

.

Your para 1c. The issue of visa promise letters is a matter dealt with by the Home Office. We understand from them that, in 1984, 468 VPLs were issued for family reunion cases in Vietnam. If these people are able to obtain permits to leave Vietnam, they would be eligible to depart for the UK under the Orderly Departure Programme.

22 February 1985

の

S T Nash

South East Asian Department

HKCK 243/2

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

255E1985

Miss Walker, HKD

The A

ENCLASSIFIED

82H