CONFIDENTIAL
To maximise the effect of our decision and Hong Kong's,
3.
we
are
pressing
other
resettlement
countries
Most
to
take
have
been
additional refugees from Hong Kong. sympathetic to our request, but it is too early yet to know
how many
will respond with concrete offers of resettlement
So
places.
more
far Australia (200 refugees), Canada (50), Finland (70), the Netherlands (80) and New Zealand (10) have
The US, offered specific increases.
which resettles
Indo-Chinese refugees than any other country, is currently accepting refugees at an annual rate of some 1,800, 200 more than the previous year's ceiling. Several other countries (including Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and likely to respond favourably.
Action by Hong Kong
Greece)
are
4.
Hong
Kong's
is
decision
(para 2(ii))
to absorb
in being
more
refugees
their difficulties courageous given seen to give Vietnamese refugees a better deal than illegal immigrants from China, many of whom have far closer family and cultural ties with Hong Kong. The figure of 250, which is on top of the 14,500 displaced Indo-Chinese they have
also absorbed,
with the achievements is high compared with many resettlement countries, especially when
of
seen in terms
The
of the severe population
pressures
in
refugees being
being resettled
will
be drawn
Hong Kong.
from the
longest
stayers (over 6 years) in the Hong Kong camps, and will thus
be
among
elsewhere.
those who
German Position
have proved
hardest to
resettle
were resettled
5. FRG has accepted 2,400 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong since 1975, more than any other European country except
the
it has UK.
Most
in 1979/80: recently
This drop is accepted very few (one in 1984, 45 in 1985).
agreement in 1982 between the Federal and Indo-Chinese
the result of an
Länder
Governments
to
only accept
those
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