TNAG-1421-FCO40-1904-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 87

CONFIDENTIAL

5.

In response to

to the Embassy's approach, the Auswaertiges Amt initially said that they would press for the admission of Vietnamese

in Hong Kong with German links (the Hong Kong Government believe

there are about 90 of

90 of these). However the Auswaertiges Amt have

since informed the Embassy that the German Government is unable to

admit any additional refugees from Hong Kong. The Embassy have

commented that the Germans' problems over Tamils and other South

Asian refugees, not to mention East Germans and East Europeans, force them to put Vietnamese refugees at the bottom of the list. (They currently have some 600,000 asylum seekers in West Germany.) The Embassy see little hope of the Germans' changing their minds

without strong pressure at a political level. It would therefore be very helpful if Mr Eggar could raise the matter at his meeting with

Dr Meyer-Landrut. We are also recommending that the Secretary of State pursues the question with Herr Genscher at Chevening after the

forthcoming Anglo-German summit.

CONFIDENTIAL