TNAG-1418-FCO40-1901-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 234

THE HOME AFFAIRS SUB-COMMITTEE ON RACE RELATIONS AND IMMIGRATION 151

4 February 1985]

MR R LUCE, MP, MR A C GALSWORTHY, DR D C WILSON and DR D CARTER

[Continued

[Mr Hanley Contd.]

are

232. I hope, not an unfair fashion? (Mr Luce.) No. I think it must be made quite plain again--and I would like to take this chance to do it--that it is the view of the Hong Kong Government and of this Government that this cannot be desirable or satisfactory policy; that it must be a temporary policy, and that we have to work very hard for a durable solution. It seems to me, from the discussion this afternoon and, indeed, I am sure from your previous discussion, that we all realise the very difficult dilemma that we actually face: that we have already accepted a considerable number of people into this country (just under 20,000); that they are having considerable difficulties in settling down here; that there is a dilemma for the British Government in taking substantial numbers here. Indeed, one is bound to pose the question: "Is it satisfactory for them to come here, if there are such difficulties in settling down?". Equally, many other resettlement countries facing very real difficulties at the present time, and we have to recognise that. The Hong Kong Government have already made a generous response to the interna- tional appeal to take refugees. So we are grappling with a very humane, very diffi- cult problem, a very emotional one, and one to which we want to find a solution, like you. Against that background, I have certainly considered very carefully whether we could make some adjustments else- where. I frankly do not see how we can help much on the Orderly Departure Pro- gramme, because we are already commit- ted, under previous policies. We intro- duced this, it was a British lead and a British initiative to have the Orderly De- parture Programme, in the 1979 confer- ence. We must stick to that belief. Indeed if we were to go back on our commitment to the 2,000 people who are still in the pipeline, entitled to a visa to come into this country, then I believe we would be doing something that probably would be wrong. have thought very seriously about this, and I have described to you why I think that this is probably not a starter. We may now be taking slightly fewer people from the boat rescue scheme, but it will not amount to a very large number. So I cannot say that I think the halving of the ODP when you think that we have al- ready got commitments amounting to 2,000 would be the right way to proceed, I am afraid.

Mr Hanley: Thank you, Mr Luce.

Chairman

233. Mr Luce, as I am sure you know, the Committee is not insensitive to the very great problems that surround this issue. We are, and we have looked at this matter from every angle and understand perfectly why we are where we are at today. What I would like to ask you now is whether you feel that we are doing enough with our European partners to resolve this problem? The French, after all, were the colonising power in Indo-China; they have been involved in wars in Indo-China. There is certainly a moral obligation on the part of the French to help solve this problem, especially bear- ing in mind that the United Kingdom, it seems to us, has already been extremely generous in the way it has received people from Hong Kong and, as you rightly observed, the majority of them have very great problems in settling down to life within the United Kingdom. So what about the European Community? Can we expect more from them, especially the French?

(Mr Luce.) First of all, could I say, with regard to the European Community, that of course on the broader front of Indo-Chinese refugees the French in particular have naturally taken a substantial lead and have taken a really pretty large number of refugees altogether. I have not got the total figure here in front of me, but if I look at the question of how many Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong have been taken by the European Community, since 1975 8,000 have been taken. The Federal Republic of Germany has taken over 2,300, France over 1,500 and Denmark over 1,000. These, I will stress again, are not the total figures for Vietnamese refugees. So it is not as though they have not made a contribution, even though France, of course, has taken a much more substantial lead on the wider front. We obviously would like them to take more, let me put it that way.

234. Are we going to press them to take more?

(Mr Luce.) We shall certainly continue to press them to do so. But we are back to the general question that they, like other coun- tries, regard Britain as being responsible for the Hong Kong refugees, and they would like to see this exercised in terms of a partnership. If that happens, then I think we can get a response.

235. But, Mr Luce, the United Kingdom did not go to war in Indo-China. The United States did, and was supported by