TNAG-1420-FCO40-1903-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 167

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CONFIDENTIAL

CALL ON LADY YOUNG BY NEW ZEALAND DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER:

30 SEPTEMBER 1985

Vietnamese Refugees in Hong Kong

Essential Facts

General

1. 10,500 Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement:

the largest number of any place of first asylum in South East Asia.

The refugees are spending increasingly long periods in Hong Kong

because of diminishing resettlement prospects: 60% have been there

over 3 years. Arrival rate has slowed since July 1982, when closed camp policy was introduced, but flow nevertheless continues.

eport of Home Affairs Sub-Committee on Race Relations and

Immigration (SCORRI)

2. A Home Office White Paper in response to SCORRI's report on "Refugees and Asylum with Special Reference to the Vietnamese" will

be published on 26 September. It will announce inter alia:

(i)

HMG's decision to accept for resettlement some 500 refugees who

have relatives in the UK but who would normally fall outside

the Home Office's immigration criteria for family reunion

cases. (Most of these are in camps in Hong Kong, but a few

will come from other places of first asylum in South East

Asia);

(ii) that, depending on the willingness shown by other resettlement

countries to respond to Hong Kong's needs, HMG are prepared to

consider accepting further limited numbers from Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Government would similarly be prepared to absorb limited numbers into Hong Kong from the camps, but again this

will depend on other countries' response to the UK's

initiative.

CONFIDENTIAL