TNAG-1538-FCO40-2102-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-resettlement-in-third-countri-1986 — Page 37

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

PF Ricketts Esq

WASHINGTON

Telephone 01-

233 5073

HKK 243/9. RECEIVED INSÍGISTRY

– E NOV 1986

Your reference

Our reference

Date 30 October 1986

Kü

Dew fickette,

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES

1.

йек

lex 243 19 24319

Mok

D

cc Ukk24]1

Thank you for copying to SEAD your letter of 22 October to Clinton Leeks reporting on your contacts with the Americans on refugee issues.

2. In paragraph 4 of your letter, you touch on the resettlement of Indo-Chinese refugees currently in camps in South East Asia. Your line that we naturally take an interest in the problems faced by other countries in the region as well as by Hong Kong is quite correct. Indeed, we are keen to stress this as the "Honolulu Group" and other concerned countries are less likely to give favourable consideration to our views if they suspect that our only interest concerns our own problems in Hong Kong.

3.

A useful pointer to our concern over the problems faced by other countries is the part of the SCORRI undertaking which includes the acceptance for resettlement under the extended family criteria of some 60 Indo-Chinese refugees from camps in South East Asia. The Home Office are currently implementing this undertaking in conjunction with the resettlement agencies (although this has been delayed by a parallel problem to that faced over the SCORRI undertaking on Hong Kong refugees, namely that the numbers submitted as qualifying under the relaxed criteria exceed by 4 times the places originally pledged). The number of places is not great, but in your future contact with the Americans you might wish to refer to this as an indication that our concerns are not limited to the problems faced by Hong Kong.

Yours

ever,

Robert Cont

R V Court

South East Asian Department

cc: Mr Leeks, HKD

Mr Moss, UKMis Geneva

Mr Wyatt, Bangkok

Mr Woodhouse, Security Branch Hong Kong

SEAABC

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