TNAG-1534-FCO40-2098-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation-1986 — Page 95

CONFIDENTIAL

redu

1, leading to

Hong Kong.

rise in the refugee population in

This would also seriously increase the

possibility of disturbances in the camps. The inevitable

publicity any such disturbance would generate would throw

our inactivity into embarrassing relief.

7.

This leads us back to

paragraph 29 in the

Government's Reply to SCORRI, covering Recommendation

the acceptance by UK of refugees who are hard

5(iii) on

to resettle and who have spent years in camps:

"Having

regard

to

the

Committee's

recommendation that if necessary and as part

of a burden-sharing agreement Britain should

accept a small share of those who are hard to

resettle and have spent years in camps, HMG

are prepared to consider accepting, in

reunion cases, further

addition to the family reunion

limited numbers of Vietnamese

refugees from

Hong Kong. A decision on this will be taken

in the light of the willingness shown by other

resettlement countries to respond to Hong

Kong's needs and of all the circumstances at

the time."

8.

In the view of Ministers here, the time has now come

to consider a further intake of Vietnamese refugees from

Hong Kong, to

to follow on from the present family reunion

programme.

We

view of the

now have a clear enough

enough view

CONFIDENTIAL