TNAG-1426-FCO40-1909-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 91

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Mr Cole, UND

REFUGEES FROM INDO-CHINA : DRAFT BACKGROUND BRIEF

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1. I am enclosing a copy of a draft background brief on Indo-Chinese refugees produced by Information Department, on which your comments are invited. I would draw your attention in particular to the last two paragraphs on page 5 under the heading "Definition of a Refugee". In the first of these

paragraphs there are two points on which I would welcome clarification. Firstly, should we not point out that the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees was not extended to Hong Kong? I wonder about the penultimate sentence concerning the "understanding" reached at the 1979 Geneva Conference. we not mention that the "understanding" was not binding?

Also

Should

2. In the last paragraph there is mention of surveys carried out by the Hong Kong Immigration Service (HKD may wish to comment on whether we can quote from the results of these surveys). I think it is useful to point to the problem of economic migration, although I do not think that we or the Hong Kong Government have gone as far as to challenge openly whether Vietnamese arriving in Hong Kong are in fact refugees. It would be useful to be able to point to the Thai proposals for screening Laotian refugees but there have been no open references to this that I am aware of.

11 June 1985

CC

: Ms Walker, HKD

S T Nash

South East Asian Department

Mr Reddicliffe, RD

Miss Vercoe, Information Dept

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