TNAG-1426-FCO40-1909-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 37

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The Sub-Committee's Report, issued on 18 April 1985, said that while Britain had a good record on accepting Vietnamese refugees, greater efforts should be made in training them and teaching them English. It recommended that the closed camps in Hong Kong should be abolished and that Britain should provide at least 500 more places for Vietnamese boat people, since even a modest commitment to take more might persuade other countries to increase their quotas.

In the House of Commons on 24 May 1985, Mr Luce, Minister of State at the FCO, said that many more resettlement places would have to be found for the refugees currently in places of first asylum, particularly Hong Kong. He also stated that it was the aim of the British and Hong Kong Governments to see the closed camps in Hong Kong terminated as soon as possible. On 5 June, he and other FCO officials. had talks in London with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees who had--- just been visiting Hong Kong. The discussions were said to have been

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The flight from these two countries has been mainly over the border to Thailand. Laotians seek refuge because of continuing rejection of Government policies and problems of internal security. Cambodia, both the horrors of Khmer Rouge rule in 1975-78 and flight from the Vietnamese invasion of December 1978 caused large-scale departures. The situation in Thailand became so serious during 1979 that at the end of the year holding camps were established for up to 300,000 refugees and displaced persons. Last November, Vietnam launched her heaviest offensive since 1979 against the resistance groups, overrunning all the main camps on the Thai/Cambodian border, causing over 230,000 Cambodians to flee into Thailand. These, however, are not considered eligible for settlement.

At a post-Ministerial conference with members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur on 11 July 1985, the Japanese Foreign Minister said that his country would double (to 10,000) the number of refugees from Indochina it would accept, give an additional $3.4 million for aid to them, and continue to provide half the UNHCR's budget for Indochinese refugees.

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