TNAG-1526-FCO40-2090-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1986 — Page 8

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

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David Wyatt Epe BANGKOK

RECE

Telephone 01-

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SEP 1986

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Your reference

Our reference

Date

Пасли алюєва be'cal': the concurs

RC2 ABJ

,a4/1

3 September 1986

Dear

David,

IN:

STRY

. Taken

Rek

ARREL PA VR: Scorri

(24311)

SOUTH EAST ASIAN REFUGEES IN THAILAND

1.

You may have seen the attached article in the International Herald Tribune of 11 August, with its provocative title "Thais

'Puiting Gun to Head' of West on Refugees". The useful background to the CCSDPT meeting, given in Peter Bean's letter of 14 July, is of course not available to many who will read only Branigin's more sensationalist report. In this respect, the news of Prasong's advancement reported in Bangkok tel No 429 might well be interpreted in some quarters as endorsement from the very highest levels in Thailand for his apparently increasingly hard line on refugees.

2. The threat to close Khao-I-Dang is of course not new. Its reappearance in the media might, however, bring some increase in the pressure applied to resettlement countries. If you are pressed, the guidance given in Stephen Nash's teleletter to Peter Bean of 20 June and my teleletter of 5 August remains broadly valid. The latest figure for unresettled Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong on 12 August was 8642 continuing the increasing trend of the past months.

ixl

SCORRI: Non Hong Kong Family Reunion Cases

3.

Please refer to Stephen Nash's letter of 23 April. I attach a letter and enclosure from Liz Hebden in the Home Office, which sets out the stage reached in the SCORRI Report undertaking that some 60 Indo-Chinese refugees in camps in South East Asia will be accepted for resettlement in the UK under the relaxed family reunion criteria. As you will see, a sizeable number of the 221 refugees originally identified by the agencies as being eligible under this scheme are in camps in Thailand. It is not clear for the moment how many of these will be regarded by the Home Office as priority cases, although I would draw your attention to paragraph 2 of Miss Hebden's letter where she describes Malaysia and Thailand as the areas of greatest need. The Home Office are still ironing out the details with the agencies, after which the first of the priority cases will be called forward. If in the wake of the

/publicity

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publicity surrounding the CCSDPT meeting, you are pressed on the question of resettlement, you might refer in general terms to the prospects offered by the continuing post-SCORRI process.

SCORRI-Hong Kong

4. You might be interested, for your own background, to know the stage reached in the post-SCORRI exercise. As the SCORRI ceiling of 500 relaxed criteria family reunion cases accepted for resettlement in the UK approaches, a two prong approach is being proposed:

5.

a.

b.

the Home Office will be asked to accept a further number of refugees under the relaxed criteria. This approach will focus on refugees in Hong Kong and is unlikely to include any more non-Hong Kong cases; and

in parallel, the UK will associate itself with other countries concerned at trends in the continuing outflow of refugees and "economic migrants" from Vietnam. The proposal is to enter into multilateral discussions, with a view perhaps to approaching the Vietnamese government to see whether there is any scope for the return, under acceptable condions, of those considered to be economic migrants rather that statute refugees.

This is clearly a long term process, whose chances for substantive progress are difficult to assess at this stage. You will have seen FCO tel Nos 1530 to Washington and 334 to UKMIS Geneva giving instructions on the approach referred to in paragraph 4 above. As you will see our preliminary view is that, in addition to the resettlement countries and UNHCR, consultations might also need to include countries of first asylum in the region. You should not refer to these moves but might be interested in them as an indication of the pressures felt within the UK to find better durable solutions than that of third country resettlement.

Yours eve,

Lobark

RV Court

South East Asian Department

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/Copy to:

Copy to:

A

Miss Walker

UKMIS Geneva

Miss Hebden

Refugee & Special Cases Section

Home Office

Lunar House

Wellesley Road

CROYDON

Mrs Wyeth

DRU

ODA

Mr Tevan

UND

Mr Leeks/

HKD

eks

Chancery:

Kuala Lumpur

Singapore

Jakarta

Manila

Hanoi