,
[AIDABS]
CONFIDENTIAL
A R Rawsthorne Esq
Immigration & Nationality Dept
Bl Division
Home Office
Lunar House
CROYDON
REC
bcc: M. Adams, SEAD
221
16 July 1986
3/1
4KK 243/1
REGISTRY
23 JUL 1986
PA
REGISTRY
Action Taken
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG: SCORRI REPORT
1.
last
-
As you know, our Departments were in close contact year about the terms of the Government's Reply to the SCORRI Report on Vietnamese refugees, and in particular the Report's recommendations on the admission to the UK of further numbers of refugees. One of the principal SCORRI recommendations accepted by HMG the relaxation of family reunion criteria for Vietnamese camps in countries of temporary asylum - has now largely been implemented. Over 350 of the 400-500 refugees in Hong Kong originally expected to qualify for
for admission are now in the UK. At the present rate of resettlement, over 400 may well have arrived by end-July.
2.
in
For our own part, in accordance with SCORRI'S recommendation we have been active in using HMG's relaxation of our family reunion criteria to persuade other countries to offer additional resettlement places for Hong Kong. We have had some success.
Several hundred places have been offered for this year which otherwise would probably not have been forthcoming. However these are all "one-off" responses. likely to be repeated in the absence of further initiatives by HMG or Hong Kong. I should add response to a SCORRI recommendation and in the the increased resettlement places offered by third countries, Hong Kong has also decided to absorb 250
"long-stayers" from the open camps.
3.
None is
that, in light of
These additional resettlements in the UK, Hong Kong and third countries have reduced the population in the Hong Kong camps from 10039, when the Government's reply was published last September, to 8244 at 1 July; the reduction would have been greater but for an increase in arrivals this year. By the end of this year, however,
CONFIDENTIAL
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