TNAG-1426-FCO40-1909-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 61

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Mr Ehrman, HKD

Mr Galsworthy, HKD

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VIETNAMESE REFUGEES: DIPLOMATIC OFFENSIVE ON RESETTLEMENT

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1. Mr Galsworthy asked me to consider what plans we should make for approaching other countries on resettlement once the Home Secretary has taken a decision on the proposals in the Secretary of State's minute of 20 May.

2.

Which countries we should approach.

(i) Countries which already take large numbers of refugees

from Hong Kong: US, Canada and Australia. The most obvions (ii) EC Countries

EC Countries took few refugees from Hong Kong in 1984 (France 65, Denmark 49, Netherlands 18, Italy 1,

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W Germany 1). So far this year, France has taken 68 and W Germany 42 (the others have taken 5 or less). Of the EC countries, France has resettled by far the largest number of Indo Chinese refugees since 1975: 107,307 including 1,680 from Hong Kong. W Germany has taken 28,513, including 2,488 from Hong Kong. Presumably these two countries would find it easiest to absorb further groups of refugees from Hong Kong, in the sense that they already have large Indo-Chinese immigrant communities and are experienced in dealing with them. the other extreme, Greece for example has accepted only 140 (of which 42 came from Hong Kong, all in 1980) and Luxembourg only 97 (5 from Hong Kong). But I think all our EC partners should be approached (together with Spain and Portugal as prospective EC members?). (iii) Non-EC countries in W Europe

Austria, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland. worth trying. this leeland

(iv) Commonwealth Countries

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Apart from Australia and Canada (see (i) above), New Zealand seems the most obvious possibility. So far it has accepted 6,378 Indo-Chinese refugees, including 407 from Hong Kong. Since 1982 however it has taken very few from Hong Kong (16 in 1983, 20 in 1984). They might be approached at the same time as the countries in paras (i) to (iii) above. Other Commonwealth countries might be approached at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in October.

(v) Other countries

(a) Japan: During EXCO's recent discussion of the

SCORRI report, Mr Sandberg suggested that Japan should be pressed on resettlement. It is worth a try, though in the past they have been very reluctant to resettle refugees from other places of

CONFIDENTIAL