TNAG-1540-FCO40-2104-Further-resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-i-1986 — Page 187

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30.

Home

that we make а "package"

(Hong Kong Telno

Hong Kong have proposed

approach to the

Office

1875),

including family reunion cases, "hard to resettle" cases, and "UK refusal" cases (230 refugees deemed to have turned down UK offers of resettlement in 1980-81). Although this

is a more complex approach than those we have previously considered it is one that we might also explore with the

Home Office particularly if we can obtain from them an

agreement as to numbers but are unable to agree on the

criteria to be used to fill them.

31.

t would be sensible to discuss the various options

informally with the

the Home Office before deciding precisely

what approach would have the best chance of acceptance.

Our formal bid should probably then be for a new intake

which went beyond family reunion cases: but we might very

well have to settle in the end for а more limited new

intake or even no more

than a compromise based on a

continuation of the current programme.

32.

a

In approaching the Home Office on the need for further

UK resettlement we should stress that the only way to make continued impact on Hong Kong's refugee problem is by increased resettlement (coupled with a continuation of a

deterrent to new arrivals, in the form of closed camps);

and other countries will not resettle more refugees without

another exemplary gesture by UK. We should argue that we are now in a position to meet the conditions set out in the Government's Reply to SCORRI (para 4 above):

shown by Kong's

(a) We can now assess the "willingness

other countries to respond to Hong

needs" mentioned in the Reply. While we may

not yet know the exact numbers to be taken by

all the other countries we have approached,

have indications that the diplomatic

campaign

places

we

has

generated 1,000 "new"

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