TNAG-1426-FCO40-1909-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 199

Refugee Action

Registered Office: The Offices,

The Cedars, Oakwood,

Derby DE2 4FY.

Telephone: (0332) 833310

Chairman: Lord Chitnis

Director: Julia Meiklejohn

please reply to:

Jill Reynolds

9 Meridian Vale

Clifton Bristol 8

2nd May 1985

Dear Mr Waldegrave

Thank you for forwarding the reply from Mr Richard Luce to your enquiry about the problem of Vietnamese refugees who are in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement. My apologies for a delay in acknowledging this: I felt it best to await the report from the Home Affairs Committee on Refugees and Asylum with special reference to the Vietnamese. I enclose a copy of the British Refugee Council's press release which highlights the main recommendations.

The Committee condemned the prison-like conditions in which Vietnamese refugees are held in Hong Kong's closed camps, and urged that they be released into open camps, pointing out that there will shortly be children of school age who have spent their entire lives in closed camps.

The Committee recommended more generous criteria for admission of people in refugee camps who have relatives here. Refugee Agencies have re-submitted family reunion applications from Vietnamese with relatives in camps. We hope that these will be approved speedily.

The Committee urged all departments to devote more resources to Vietnamese refugees in this country. It insists that the Governments responsibility continues and the Vietnamese must continue for the time being to be treated as a special case.

I do hope that you will do what you can to support these recommendations, and see that they are followed through.

With many thanks

Yours sincerely

fill Reynolds.

Jill Reynolds

copy to Truc L. Pham

A Registered Charity No. 283660

A Member of the British Refugee Council

A Company Registered in London No. 1593454 and Limited by Guarantee

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