TNAG-1537-FCO40-2101-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-resettlement-in-third-countri-1986 — Page 240

INFORMAL MEETING OF PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVES IN GENEVA OF

STATES MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE PROGRAMME

OF THE UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES

FRIDAY 13 JUNE 1986

STATEMENT MADE BY THE UK PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE, MR JOHN

SANKEY

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER'S SPEECH: ITEM 2 (AFFIRMATION OF MAIN DIRECTIONS FOR UNHCR - TWO MAJOR LINES OF ACTION: EFFECTIVE RESPONSE TO REFUGEE CRISES AND SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS) AND ITEM 3 (UNHCR RESPONSE)

The British Government remains seriously concerned about the 8,400 Vietnamese refugees still in Hong Kong. Since 1975 Hong Kong, as a place of first asylum, has accommodated 110,000 Indo-Chinese boat refugees and has itself accepted 14,500 for resettlement. In the same period Britain has accepted 19,000 Vietnamese refugees for resettlement, mostly from Hong Kong.

At the meeting of the Executive Committee last October y predecessor announced a British initiative, in response to a Parliamentary Committee's report on Vietnamese Refugees, to accept for resettlement an additional 550 Vietnamese refugees who had relatives in Britain but who would not have qualified for admission under our normal family reunion criteria. It was our hope that other countries would respond to this British initiative by taking from Hong Kong as many additional Vietnamese refugees as possible.

We

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