TNAG-1523-FCO40-2087-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1986 — Page 86

Miss D. J. Walker

United Kingdom Mission 37

37-39 rue de Vermont

1211 Geneva 20

MKK 243/1

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

21 JAN1986

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

REGISTRY

PA

Action Taken

14 January 1986

(31)

plenté

ZM

て

zmotor

Vietnamese Refugees in Hong Kong: SCORRI Report

Thank you for the copy of your letter to Clinton, dated 20 December 1985. I am grateful for the very comprehensive report on your discussions with Feldmann, Cooper and Carpenter. I agree completely with your judgement that we should not continue with bilateral discussions until after the UNHCR resettlement meeting in mid-January. I also agree that we should continue to work closely with the UNHCR to ensure that it submits cases to governments along the lines we have agreed.

I accept that other resettlement countries are interested in Hong Kong's decision to resettle ethnic Chinese and provide a RASRO Transit Centre and as you are aware, we are seeking the advice of the Executive Council on these matters and hope to be able to report favourably in the near future. I am afraid that I am a little cynical about whether the various countries formed their views on these two issues independently. I suspect that the fine Italian hand of the UNHCR had something to do with their interest.

I will require more time to check on the piece of paper provided by Robert Cooper, but my initial reaction is that the countries selected include those who have not resettled many refugees from Hong Kong. In addition, as I have pointed out before, the UNHCR has quite a cavalier approach to statistics and although I shall be able to check those concerning Hong Kong, I doubt whether I will be able to verify those for the other first asylum countries.

Thank you once again for your efforts on our behalf. They are greatly appreciated in Hong Kong.

humw

(K. J. Woodhouse)

for Secretary for Security

cc Mr C. E. Leeks, HKD, FCO