TNAG-1534-FCO40-2098-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation-1986 — Page 88

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CONFIDENTIAL

that would not otherwise have been offered:

however few further

few further responses to our present campaign are likely to materialise.

(b) As regards

time": the

must take

continuing

"all the circumstances at the

principal circumstance which we

into account is the need for

action to resolve

international

Hong Kong's refugee problem. Resettlement in

resettlement

in the

the West is the only practicable form this

action can take at present. The Home Office

may argue that a further intake would be

difficult to present to Parliament and the public. We should counter this by pointing

out that, to the extent that Parliamentary

and public opinion is exercised about

UK of Vietnamese

refugees, it is sympathetic to their plight and conscious of the need to help them. The

Home Office may argue that Vietnamese

refugees should no longer be given any

preferential treatement in terms of UK

immigration policy. We should point out that the refugees in Hong Kong are in a special category, in view of our responsibility for Hong Kong as a dependent territory.

As well as this, we should make the point that any gap

between the end of the "family reunion intake and the start of a further programme is likely to be perceived by other resettlement countries (and Hong Kong) as evidence of the

UK's lack of will; and that

that this will make it very much

harder for us later to persuade them to renew their

commitments as they reach the end of their current

resettlement programmes in late 1986 and early 1987.

CONFIDENTIAL