TNAG-1534-FCO40-2098-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation-1986 — Page 8

Mr Whitehead

S & SE Asia Section

Research Dept

CONFIDENTIAL

Reference.

NKK 243/2

RE

17 OCT 1986

INL..

STRY

Tuon Taken

INDO-CHINESE REFUGEES: INVOLUNTARY REPATRIATION

1. With apologies for the delay, you might welcome a few written comments on your draft paper to put with those we discussed on the telephone.

2. Starting with general comments. I particularly like the clear schematic layout of paragraphs 9 to 11. I wonder however whether there need not be a more comprehensive concluding paragraph to attempt to assess the possible advantages against the limitations and disadvantages of repatriation. In fact, from your numbering, it would seem that a paragraph 12 is missing; perhaps it or an extended version of your present paragraph 13 could attempt a fuller conclusion. As a stab, I think that the conclusion must be that the continuing and perhaps escalating problems associated with Indo-Chinese refugees, together with the dwindling prospect of the 3 traditional types of durable solution ever bringing an end to the problem, will focus people's minds ever more clearly on some form of "screening" which must logically then lead to the repatriation of those "screened" out. However, there would need first to be improvements in the domestic situation of the 3 Indo-Chinese countries and in the political relations of the countries of first asylum and the countries of resettlement with the Indo-Chinese states.

3. My other general comment is that the paper does not refer to recent public statements on the need to look for alternative durable solutions, such as those made by Mr Waddington in Hong Kong and M. Hocké in both Thailand and Hong Kong. Some reference would be worthwhile, as they show just how close to the surface of peoples thinking the notion of repatriation has come.

4. A few detailed comments, working through your draft:

(a) paragraph 1 second sentence might be redrafted: "Outflows from Cambodia were considerable during the period of Khmer Rouge rule (1975-1978) and immediately after their overthrow following the Vietnamese invasion in December 1978. Outflows from Vietnam

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(b) The last part of the last sentence could be redrafted: under which Vietnam undertook to allow asylum seekers to leave in a regulated manner rather than fleeing illegally in boats (the "orderly departure programme")."

RC2ADC

CODE 18-77

AWO Ltd.

7/84

CONFIDENTIAL

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