5
On resettlement we would agree that the major
burden of responsibility should fall on the
international community as a whole. Hong Kong has done and continues to do its share, both in providing a place of first asylum and in the offer of local settlement places. Consideration currently being given to the possibility of relaxing the criteria for local settlement would not at this stage involve extending this scheme beyond the 250 places originally approved by the Governor-in-Council in May 1986. We hope that some relaxation of the criteria and the recent clarification of refugees eligibility, once they accept local settlement, for public housing benefits on the same terms as other Hong Kong residents will assist the take-up rate under the local settlement programme.
Finally as regards the final section of your report on "The Way Forward", we would generally share OXFAM's concern about the problem of long-stayers in confined circumstances, but do not accept the proposal that an arbitrary time-limit should be set on a refugee's stay in a closed centre. This is a matter for the international community as a whole to address. It is not Hong Kong which keeps the refugees in closed centres indefinitely. It is, I am afraid, an indictment of the attitude of many resettlement countries which are highly selective in their choice of refugees for resettlement, apparently in the hope that the problems of the remainder will go away if they are neglected long enough.
Once again, thank you very much for an interesting and thoughtful report.
Yours
Готским
Ка
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(DG Jeaffreson ) Secretary for Security
b.c.c. Mrs Rita Fan
Mr F Karim
Mr I Bhagat
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