TNAG-1417-FCO40-1900-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 87

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1. It would be helpful if the Home Office would encourage the DHSS Ministers to nominate within their department a focal point for research, planning and funding related to the problems of mental health amongst the Vietnamese and other refugees.

2. We would like to point out the close relationship between mental health problems and the narrow criteria for family reunions. Within the culture of the Vietnamese it is only amongst family members that many of the most personal fears, griefs and other emotions can be ex- pressed. Many Vietnamese in this country find themselves deprived, there- fore, of anyone with whom the suffering involved in becoming a refugee can be talked over and dealt with. While we understand that it may be impossible to open our doors to the extended families of all the Vietnamese who are already here, we firmly believe that the Home Office should abide by the long-existing criteria for the admission of refugees from camps in countries of first asylum, namely that:

a) they have a clear need of resettlement;

b) they are persons for whom the UK is, by ties of family, education or language the most appropriate country of resettlement; and,

c) they are personally acceptable.

It seems clear to us that those refugees in camps in Hong Kong and other countries of South-east Asia who have close relations in this country satisfy these criteria.

3. Section 11. We appreciate Mr. Waddington's comments on Section 11 during the course of which he pointed out that some Vietnamese can profit from the facilities made available through the Act, even though they are not themselves Commonwealth immigrants.

under-

can be used.

We confirm that there are, indeed, places where this has happened. It is the case, however, that Local Authorities differ greatly in their standing of the way in which the provisions of Section 11 Some are liberal in their interpretation of the Act, while others refuse to allow Vietnamese to profit in any way, because they are not themselves immigrants from the Commonwealth.

Indeed, it seems to us that Mr. Waddington's comments underline the importance of the Sub-Committee's suggestions that Section 11 should be extended speci- ficallyto cover the case of the Vietnamese, since many Vietnamese are settled where there are no immigrants from the Commonwealth! For them, therefore, there is no hope whatever of plugging in to programmes designed for other groups.

4. Unemployment. We do not believe that it is helpful to perpetuate the idea that 80% of Vietnamese are unemployed. The figure comes from a survey carried out in 1981/2, and while it may be an accurate description of the state of affairs in some parts of the country, the situation today is more complex.

It is, perhaps, truer to the facts to say that it is only those whose personal circumstances enable them to take a low wage who have the incentive to seek a job and these are mainly the single and those without large families.

The basic problems faced by the Vietnamese are their lack of mastery of the english language, and the fact that they do not have the skills needed in the British job market. As a result the only jobs open to them at the bottom end of the wage-scale which do not provide sufficient income

are those