MINISTER
OF STATE
Our Ref: IMG/85 58/1026/30 (S)
HOME OFFICE
QUEEN ANNE'S GATE
LONDON SWIH 9AT
A
Pew
Thank you for your letter of 10 June in which you express the hope that the Government can look favourably on the family reunion cases associated with Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong.
You will be aware that it is a sad feature of any major exodus of refugees that families are separated, often by the circumstances of the escape itself. This is particularly true of the Vietnamese boat refugees. The Final Act of the Conference that adopted the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees urged all governments to observe the principle of family unity in refugee cases and we have always, as you know, tried to follow this principle sympathetically; but now with something like 19,000 Vietnamese refugees already resident in the United Kingdom we simply cannot accept all the relatives, even all the close relatives, of those who are already here; and the current criteria, introduced in July 1981 and applied to all refugees regardless of nationality, are that we will normally agree to the entry of the spouse and minor children of the refugee. We do look carefully on a case by case basis at all applications, but there would have to be really exceptional circumstances for us to agree to the admission of other relatives.
The British Refugee Council has consistently lobbied us about the 500 or so family reunion cases in the countries of temporary asylum, and I have agreed to look again at their selection of those cases most in need of consideration in the light of compelling compassionate circumstances. To some extent, that has been superseded by the recent report of the Home Affairs Committee's Sub-Committee on Race Relations and Immigration which recommended, among other things, a number of initiatives aimed at reducing the Vietnamese refugee population in Hong Kong. One of those recommendations was, as you have proposed, that we exceptionally relax the family reunion criteria.
As I have said, there are now about 19,000 Vietnamese in this country and quite apart from any decision about the camps in Hong Kong, we shall continue to take quite a large number every year as a result of boat rescues and the Orderly Departure Programme under which we take direct from Vietnam relatives of those
The Rt Hon Sir Peter Blaker KCMG MP
/already
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