TNAG-1426-FCO40-1909-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 148

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NOTE OF A MEETING HELD ON 5TH JUNE 1985 AT THE HOME OFFICE

Present:

Mr. Waddington Mr. Rawsthorne Mr. McDowall Mr. Wells

Mr. Storr

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES

Mr. Hartling UNHCR

Mr. Von Arnim

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Mr. Hartling had requested the meeting in order to discuss the SCORRI report on Vietnamese refugees.

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Mr. Hartling said that one third of all the Vietnamese Boat People had come to Hong Kong. The UNHCR had re-settled 104,000 from Hong Kong in the last five years. There was no chance of repatriation of refugees to Vietnam as the Vietnamese Government refused as a matter of principle to accept those who had left the country. It was therefore, Mr. Hartling felt, the duty of other countries to take action to clear the Hong Kong camps. He urged Mr. Waddington to relax the family reunion criteria as SCORRI had recommended. Many of those in the camps faced a position where the United Kingdom would not accept them because they did not qualify under the strict United Kingdom definition of what constituted family; and other countries would not accept them because they had relatives in the UK. Mr. Hartling estimated that the number who had relatives in this country was no more than 500. But he accepted Mr. Waddington's point that the total settlement figure resulting from this intake would be considerably greater because those settled would themselves seek to bring relatives into the country in time. In addition to relaxing the family reunion criteria, Mr. Hartling urged the Home Office for humane reasons to accept a certain number of the long-stay refugees in the open camps many of whom he considered might be termed "handicapped" because of the effect of their long period in the camps.

Mr. Hartling did not consider that it would be unreasonable to expect the UK to accept a significant intake from the camps. Last year, Canada had taken 2000; USA 1541 (and 341 so far this year); Australia 700; and the UK only 88.

Mr. Hartling reiterated the SCORRI view that a gesture by the UK in taking a significant number of refugees from the camps would open doors throughout the international community. Many countries, he said, including the USA, considered those in Hong Kong as primarily a British responsibility. A significant intake by the UK would set an example which others would follow. He stressed that whereas in the past it was questionable whether those in the Hong Kong camps wished to settle in the UK, it was now undoubtedly the case that they did.

Mr. Waddington said that he would consider most carefully the points which Mr. Hartling had made in considering what the Government's response to the SCORRI report should be. He was, for obvious reasons, unable to reveal any precise details of what the Government had in mind. But he assured Mr. Hartling that

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