TNAG-1426-FCO40-1909-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 51

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Mrs Wyeth ODA

UNHCR:

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LAOTIAN REFUGEE VOLUNTARY REPATRIATION PROGRAMME

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1

You will have received a copy of Mr Horekens' letter of

4 June to Dame Anne Warburton seeking a UK contribution to UNHCR funding of this programme.

2 I understand that you have spoken to Michael Roberts and that for the moment funds are not available.

3 I should like to make the point that, although this programme is small in scale, we consider it to be of value in that it is the only voluntary repatriation programme operating within South East Asia. It therefore acts as a useful precedent. Our main concerns are of course for Hong Kong's Vietnamese refugee problem: unfortunately there is no indication that voluntary repatriation to Vietnam will be possible in the foreseeable future. But we maintain contact with UNHCR on the question of repatriation, and it is in this context that token UK support for the Lao repatriation programme would be useful.

4 UK support for the programme would also be helpful in our relations with Thailand, which has the greatest unresettledload (some 128,000) of Indo-Chinese refugees in the area: of these over 87,000 are Laotians. We are most unlikely to be able to help the Thais in resettling these, except possibly in a handful of cases.

CC:

Mr Horne, ODA UND

HKD

Mr Adams, UKMIS Geneva Chancery, Bangkok

10 July 1985

S T Nash

South East Asian Department

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