TNAG-1419-FCO40-1902-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 104

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PA SCORRI

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LADY YOUNG/PUS MEETINGS WITH MR BRUNNER, STATE SECRETARY, SWISS MFA:

24 SEPTEMBER 1985

Vietnamese Refugees

Points to make

MKCK 243/2

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

18 SEP 1985

DESK OERIGEL

INDEX

PECISTRY

PA

Action Taken

1. White Paper in response to Home Affairs Select Committee's report

on Vietnamese Refugees will be published on 26 September. While do

not wish to go into full detail in advance of publication, can say

in confidence that HMG will agree

agree to take substantial number of

Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong for resettlement in UK.

2.

Concerned about effects on refugees of longterm stay in transit

centres: also risk of serious disorder if resettlement rate

continues to decline.

3. We note that Switzerland has accpeted some 600 Vietnamese

refugees from Hong Kong since 1975: will shortly be approaching your

officials to ask if you would be willing to consider taking

additional

numbers.

Background

1. 10,500 Vietnamese refugees currently in camps in Hong Kong

awaiting resettlement: the largest number of any place of first

asylum in South East Asia. Refugees are spending increasingly long

periods in camps because of diminishing resettlement prospects.

This

2. The Government will publish a White Paper on 26 September in

response to the Home Affairs Sub-Commitee on Race Relations and

Immigration (SCORRI)'s recent report on Vietnamese refugees.

will announce inter alia HMG's decision to accept some 500

Vietnamese refugees, mostly from Hong Kong, for resettlement in the

UK. We wish to maximise the effect of this decision by pressing

other countries as widely as possible also to take additional

numbers of refugees from Hong Kong.

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