TNAG-1427-FCO40-1910-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1986 — Page 124

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CONFIDENTIAL

(BACKGROUND)

for inclusion in brief for uN General Assembly (Agenden Hern 105: Office of the

Vietnamese Refugees in Hong Kong

UNHCR)

<i( 243/5.

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

0 1 NOV 1985

DESK OFFICER

REGISTRY

General

1.

INDEX

PA

Action Taken

10,000 Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong awaiting resettlement: the largest number of any place of first asylum in South East Asia. The refugees are spending increasingly long periods in Hong Kong because of diminishing resettlement prospects: 60% have been there

over 3 years. Since July 1982, in order to discourage further Vietnamese from setting out by boat for Hong Kong, the Hong Kong

Government have placed all newly arriving refugees in closed camps,

from which they are not

Arrival rate has slowed

continues.

permitted to seek outside employment.

as a result, but flow nevertheless

Report of Home Affairs Sub-Committee on Race Relations and Immigration (SCORRI)

2.

A Home Office White Paper in response to SCORRI's report on "Refugees and Asylum with Special Reference to the Vietnamese" was published on 26 September. It announced inter alia:

(i)

(ii)

HMG's decision to accept for resettlement some 500 refugees

who have relatives in the UK but who would normally fall

outside the Home Office's immigration criteria for family

reunion cases. (Most of these are in camps in Hong Kong, but a few will come from other places of first asylum in South

East Asia);

that, depending on the willingness shown by other resettlement countries to respond to Hong Kong's needs, HMG are prepared to

consider accepting further limited numbers from Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Government would similarly be prepared to absorb

CONFIDENTIAL