TNAG-1417-FCO40-1900-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 86

BRITISH REFUGEE COUNCIL

ADDITIONAL SUBMISSION TO THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON RACE RELATIONS AND IMMIGRATION

PART II THE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAMME FOR VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN THE UK.

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Introduction.

We were grateful for the evidence submitted by the Minister of State at the Home Office to the sub-committee on December 17th 1984 and for the questions put to him by the sub-committee. We should like to take the opportunity to present a further submission stimulated by the conversation that took place with the Minister.

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1. Dispersal. We were pleased to note the Minister's clear recognition the failure of the policy of dispersal and welcomed his emphasis on the need for regroupment of the Vietnamese.

We accepted his conclusion that in any future movement of refugees into this country, we must remember the lesson that we have learned from this mistake. However, we urge that there are also conclusions to be drawn regarding the future of the Vietnamese who are already here and who have been the subjects of the mistaken policy.

The question we raise is, how do we now help the Vietnamese overcome the consequences of the policy of dispersal.

At the moment, the movement of the Vietnamese to regroup is causing consider- able stresses. There is the real danger that they squat in empty property In the urban centres, particularly London, into which they are moving. They move in with relatives or into cheap and unsuitable lodgings and create conditions of overcrowding. In some cases Local Authorities accuse them

of having deliberately made themselves homeless and try to send them back to where they came from. If, as we hope, it is now accepted that they need to regroup, then we hope that not only the Home Office, but all sections of government will recognise this fact. Ways must now be found to help them through the various obstacles that lie in the way of anyone trying to move from council accomodation in one part of the country to similar accomodation in London where it is in short supply.

We believe that one of the arguments in favour of our request to the Home Office for increased funding for the Integrated Vietnamese programme is the contribution that such a programme could make to an orderly regroupment of the Vietnamese. We believe that without some coordinated attempt to tackle this problem we may be faced with a

the chaotic situation resulting from spontaneous arrival of large numbers of Vietnamese in London.

2. Mental Health. We were grateful for Mr. Waddington's emphasis on the problems of mental health suffered by the Vietnamese, and interested to note that it was this aspect of his presentation which aroused most interest in the news media. We welcome the initiative that the Home Office has taken with respect to the Department of Health and Social Security in enabling conversations about this matter to get started. We would like to make two comments on this matter.