CONFIDENTIAL
PRIORITY
<<<<
response to the SCORRI recommendations, Ministers have decided
that we should make a major effort to persuade other countries to
offer additional resettlement places to Vietnamese refugees from
Hong Kong. The White Paper will also announce that HMG are
unable to agree to SCORRI's recommendation that the closed refugee camps in Hong Kong be discontinued and their inmates
transferred to open camps.
LINE TO TAKE
2.(i) HMG have accepted the Select Committee's recommendations
relating to the admission of further Vietnamese refugees
from Hong Kong. In particular, as recommended by SCORRI,
we have decided to accept for resettlement some 500
refugees who have relatives in the UK but who would
normally fall outside our immigration criteria for family
reunion cases. Most of these refugees are in camps in Hong
Kong though there are few in camps in other South East
Asian countries.
(ii) We hope that other countries will also be able to assist
Hong Kong by accepting more refugees from the camps there.
We shall be approaching various countries about this in the
coming weeks.
ADDITIONAL POINTS (FOR USE FREELY)
3. In addition to the family reunion cases, HMG are prepared to
consider accepting further limited numbers of refugees from
Hong Kong. A decision on this will be taken in the light of the willingness shown by other resettlement countries to respond to
Hong Kong's needs and of all the circumstances at the time. 4. The Hong Kong Government would also be prepared to consider
absorbing into Hong Kong a limited number of Vietnamese refugees
from the camps there, provided this formed part of a concerted
international effort to reduce drastically the size of Hong
Kong's Vietnamese refugee population.
5. We hope that HMG's and the Hong Kong Government's positive
responses
C
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.