TNAG-1531-FCO40-2095-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-general-1987 — Page 174

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Australian ODP

19. The Australian ODP was not strictly part of the ODP set up by the 1979 MOU: Australia applied normal immigration policy to ODP cases. In early 1986 the Vietnamese lists presented to Australia had contained a reduced number of cases and the lists themselves had been less frequent.

20. In early October the Australians had had bilateral negotiations to discuss the problem and to establish how Vietnam intended to get the Australian ODP back to its previous level.

21.

The Australians felt that Vietnam wanted to limit the numbers of people leaving under the ODP and to reduce the categories of relatives eligible, ie. to limit family reunion cases to spouses, children and parents and to consider other relatives on a case by case basis. The Australians wanted the exit permits to be issued after the applicants had been accepted by receiving countries. They also wanted the Vietnamese authorities less involved in the process of selection and they did not want the Vietnamese Embassy in Australia to be involved, as the Vietnamese had suggested.

UK ODP

22. The UK spoke in accordance with FCO telno 389, stressing that we felt the ODP was far from ideal: but it retained our support as the only way of steming an illegal outflow. We shared the concerns of others about Vietnamese obstruction of ODP risking an increase in illegal departures. ODP departures to the UK did not face the same problems as those to some other countries as a result of our system of granting entry clearance before an exit permit was requested from the Vietnamese. Therefore the Vietnamese Government made the final decision. We were concerned about administrative inefficiency and hoped to be able to discover if the delays were the resultof incompetence or if there was a policy of slowing down departures to the UK. Third country resettlement was only a partial solution to the overall problem of Indo-Chinese refugees: the ideal solution would be for conditions in Vietnam to allow a voluntary return with guarantees. The Vietnamese delegation at EXCOM had referred to possible voluntary repatriation.

FRG ODP

23. There were 4,320 people in Vietnam who had been authorised to travel to the FRG but were awaiting exit visas. These people were basically under the family

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