TNAG-1425-FCO40-1908-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 222

C Leeks Esq

CONFIDENTIAL

United Kingdom Mission

37-39 rue de Vermont 1211 Geneva 20

Telex 22956

Telegrams Prodrome Geneva

Telephone 34 38 00 33 23 85

Hong Kong Department

FCO

МКК 243/5.

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

2. 1 APR 1995

Your reference

Our reference

Date

18 April 1985

ar.

19/4.

f.i.

130

Dear Clintan

UNHCR: HONG KONG

1.

INDO?

ساله

SKPA

I had a long conversation with Mrs Lasan during her short stay in Geneva this week. We covered a range of issues and, although little of what she said will be new to you, you might like to hear the line she takes when away from Hong Kong.

Jubilee Camp

2. UNHCR are concerned that CARITAS have decided to opt out of running Jubilee and are looking for a successor. World Vision have decided that they cannot afford the role but International Rescue Committee (IRC), based in New York, appear a possibility. At present there is little pressure on UNHCR as CARITAS have indicated that they will carry on after June if no other organisation comes forward. Mrs Lasan has asked the UNHCR Representative in Washington to chase IRC but I got the impression they are not working too hard at it. Similarly UNHCR are not pursuing the US Mission here which they might usefully do.

3. Mrs Lasan said that so far only the Canadians (offering to take 200) had responded to her appeal to Consulates in Hong Kong to try to resettle the people in Jubilee Camp. She said that a decision to merge the refugees in Jubilee and Kai-Tak would only occur when the residual number had been reduced to "manageable proportions". She thought that some 500 now lived outside Kai-Tak.

Arrivals

4. As there had been no new arrivals in February Mrs Lasan said that she had telephoned Mr Jeaffreson (at 8am on 1 March!) and asked whether Hong Kong now intended to review their policy on the closed camps. Unfortunately a few days later 25 boat-people were landed so she feels that the pressure is for the moment, off the Hong Kong authorities.

5.

Mrs Lasan expressed surprise that recent arrivals had predominantly comprised ethnic-Vietnamese from the south. She wondered whether the boat- people had learned that there were better chances of resettlement if they said they came from the south or whether they had genuinely moved southwards to avoid the hardships of the north and so had been able to give a genuine southern last

address.

CONFIDENTIAL

/Resettlement