TNAG-1523-FCO40-2087-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1986 — Page 182

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CONFIDENTIAL

LADY YOUNG'S MEETINGS WITH STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS:

13 JANUARY 1986

Vietnamese Refugees in Hong Kong

Background

XK 243/1

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

03 JAN1986

PA

REGISTRY

Action Taken

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

General

1.

in

9,500 Vietname se refugees

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 Vietname se 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 allowed to- seek

outside employment. Arrival rate has slowed as a result,

but flow nevertheless continues.

Report of Home Affairs Sub-Committee on Race Relations and

Immigration (SCORRI)

2.

A Home Office White

White Paper in response to SCORRI's report on "Refugees and Asylum with Special Reference to the

Vietname se" wa s published on 26 September. It announced

inter alia:

(i)

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);

CONFIDENTIAL

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