From The Minister of State
Richard Luce MP
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
My brave
31 January 1985
HICK 2435
REČEĮVED IN A SIG
Dear hunnell,
19.
Thank you for your letter of 15 January about the Vietnamese refugees who are currently in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement.
I am sorry you did not feel that I had responded in my winding-up speech to the points you made during the debate on 5 December. I did in fact refer briefly to the problem (the relevant extract from Hansard is enclosed), but there was not time to go into the subject in more detail on that occasion, the purpose of which was to discuss matters relating specifically to the agreement on the future of Hong Kong.
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We are very much aware of the plight of the 11,900 refugees who are still in Hong Kong. Over the past few years Britain has played a major role in tackling the problem of Indo-Chinese refugees. We have accepted some 19,000 refugees, most of them from Hong Kong, for resettlement here. We also have a continuing international commitment to resettle family reunion and ship rescue cases. We maintain regular contact with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other countries to find permanent solutions for all Indo-Chinese refugees, including those who are at present in Hong Kong. We are most anxious to bring about an early solution of the problem.
I know that it has been argued that if Britain were to accept a further quota, Canada and the US might respond by increasing their level of resettlement from Hong Kong. It is certainly true that some resettlement countries have said that they would be unwilling to raise their quotas of refugees from Hong Kong until Britain took the lead in accepting more, and this does make it difficult for us to apply pressure on other countries to take more Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong.
Russell Johnston Esq MP
House of Commons
London SW1A OAA
/On the other
18
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