TNAG-1427-FCO40-1910-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1986 — Page 150

CONFIDENTIAL

journalists and other

interested

groups, particularly

the

British

Refugee Council (BRC) who in December 1984 produced a pamphlet camps. Mr Luce both corresponded

"Behind Barbed Wire" about the

with the BRC and discussed with them their detailed criticisms of

Where possible their recommendations for improvement of

conditions have been implemented by the HKG.

the camps.

Report of Home Affairs Sub-Committee оп Race Relations and

Immigration (SCORRI)

4.

SCORRI's recent report "Refugees and Asylum with Special

Reference to the Vietnamese" included a number of recommendations

relating to the problem of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. A Home

Office White Paper in response to the report was published on 26

September. With regard to the refugee situation in Hong Kong, it

announced the following:

(i)

(ii)

HMG's decision, in

accordance with SCORRI's recommendation,

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 camp s 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 limited numbers into Hong Kong from the

camps, but again this will depend оп other countries' response to the UK's initiative;

(iii)

present

circumstances

do not mak e

agree to

to it possible

SCORRI's recommendation that Hong Kong's closed camp policy be ended. In HMG's view, abolition of the policy would cause

a sharp rise in the number of arrivals in Hong Kong, and

and unmanageable rise in the

consequently

unacceptable an

camp population in Hong Kong.

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