TNAG-1523-FCO40-2087-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1986 — Page 70

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

MM Hall Esq

The Hague

~KK 242!!

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

2 4 JAM 1986

Telephone 01-

233 3988

DESK OFFICIA

REGISTRY

Dear Mike,

INDEX

PA

Action Taken

Your reference

Our reference

JA3AOV

Date

23 January 1986

483) 2×3/2 (85).

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG

1.

You reported in your letter of 16 December to Clinton Leeks the Tweede Kamer's vote in favour of doubling to 500 the

guaranteed" quota of

resettlement places for refugees, and will since have seen Delia Walker (UKMIS Geneva)'s letter to Leeks of 20 December alluding to discussions in The Hague when the Dutch invited UNHCR to submit cases for consideration. This has now been done (Hong Kong Telno 130 to FCO, copied to Amsterdam - sic).

2.

-

At a UNHCR meeting on 21 January (reported in UKMIS Geneva Telno 21 to FCO)

FCO) the Dutch indicated that no final decision on

accepting Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong would be made before a decision on absorption by Hong Kong of more

refugees from the camps there. This conditionality i s new

in

(for the Dutch), and is a little disappointing. We should be grateful if you

if you would reiterate to the Dutch the response their representative will have received in Geneva: that Hong Kong is, despite its severe population pressures, considering actively and sympathetically the possibility of resettling further numbers of (ethnic Chinese) refugees from the camps Hong Kong. We hope to be able to report a decision soon, but hope that the Dutch will not feel obliged to await the outcome of Hong Kong's deliberations. (for your information only,

this i s an extremely delicate issue in Hong Kong).

in Hong Kong). You could add that Hong Kong has already accepted for resettlement some 14,500 of the 110,000 Indo-Chinese boat refugees i t has accommodated since 1975. Given the Dutch preference that formal approaches should emanate from UNHCR (your Telno 308 of 1985, inter alia), any contact should be on an informal basis.

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