TNAG-1541-FCO40-2105-Further-resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-i-1986 — Page 3

Access by UNHCR is mainly for resettlement purposes, but it is also necessary to underline UNHCR's responsibility for maintenance of refugees. Hence it is necessary to balance the deterrent effects of closed camps against the need to ensure that the UNHCR commitment to refugees here is maintained. would, of course, be necessary for each refugee to be processed by an Immigration Officer on arrival and for full details to be obtained. Once this has been done, the following options are for consideration

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

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to deny all access by UNHCR indefinitely. This would eliminate all hopes of resettle- ment and would provide the strongest deterrent. However, this would be opposed by the UNHCR and could mean that Hong Kong would be saddled with the eventual problem of settling the refugees so detained;

as an adaptation of (a), to deny access by UNHCR for a defined or initial period, say six months, to be reviewed in the light of experience of the deterrent effect. If it was decided to make the period public, this would keep the hope of resettlement alive and so might not provide such a strong deterrent. This would also be unacceptable to UNHCR and could still saddle Hong Kong with the eventual problem of settling the refugees;

to provide access by UNHCR, restricted to particular hours, to all those identified as genuine refugees within the meaning of the UNHCR definiton. This would keep the UNHCR involved and is likely to be acceptable to it;

to allow UNHCR access to all refugees as and when it suited them. This would keep UNHCR involved and would meet with its approval.

It should, however, be explained that providing UNHCR access to all or only some of the refugees in no way means that they will be resettled: In the light of current resettlement prospects, only a limited number of refugees are likely to be accepted by resettlement countries even if UNHCR does acknowledge their refugee status. Thus only those refugees actually selcted for

The remainder overseas resettlement would leave the closed camps. would continue to be detained. Thus in options (c) and (d), the deterrent effect is still quite considerable, combining as it does the loss of freedom with little hope of resettlement. It is, therefore, recommended that subject to its acceptability to the UNHCR, option (c) should be adopted.

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