TNAG-1420-FCO40-1903-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 27

FROM THE AMBASSADOR

CopWNED, FO

(285)

Dr Wilson Auss, Fro.

BRITISH EMBASSY,

WASHINGTON, D. C. 20008

TELEPHONE: (202) 462-1340

Congressman Stephen Solarz Room 1536 N

Longworth House Office Bldg House of Representatives Washington DC 20510.

9 October 1985

HHF: 243/2 ний

RECEIVED INREGISTRY 1 1OCT 1985

DESK OFFICER INDEX

PA

the Komersall

REGISTRY

Action Taken.

QFit 410

Solang

BRITISH GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE on refugeES IN HONG KONG

in view

Following upon your meeting with David Wilson yesterday, and of the current deliberations in Congress on the Administration's proposals for refugee admissions in FY1986, I would like to give you details of the recent decision by the British Government to accept for resettlement in the United Kingdom a substantial number of Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong, and to initiate a major effort on Hong Kong's behalf to reduce the chronic refugee population in the territory..

་

As you probably know there are still over 10,000 Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. The build up of long-term refugees in Hong Kong has increased as resettlement places around the world have diminished over recent years. This has become a progressively serious problem for the Hong Kong Government, whose humanitarian record as a country of first asylum is second to none. Last April, the House of Commons Select Committee on Race Relations and Immigration recommended that

British

1

thement should take the initiative in trying to alleviate

}

Hong Kong's mounting problems by accepting an additional number of refugees into the United Kingdom and by encouraging other governments of traditional resettlement countries, to participate in a collective effort substantially to reduce Hong Kong's chronic refugee problem.

!

On 26 September, Her Majesty's Government announced that it would accept for resettlement a further 500-plus Vietnamese refugees, all of whom have relatives in the United Kingdom, but who do not qualify for admittance under our normal criteria. We estimate that there are up to 490 such persons in Hong Kong, and 60 in other countries in South East Asia.

Her Majesty's Government would be willing to accept a further number of refugees from Hong Kong if other resettlement countries respond in a major way to this international effort.

The Hong Kong Government have also declared their preparedness to absorb into Hong Kong a limited number of Vietnamese refugees from the closed camps there, as a part of an international campaign.