TNAG-1787-FCO40-2547-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-general-1988 — Page 239

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I am reluctant to open up this whole area of policy, which was agreed only as recently as May last year. I would therefore prefer to fill the We know that there vacant places with people who meet our existing criteria. are a number of refugees who meet these criteria but who were overlooked when the original list was compiled. These could now be accepted. If there are insufficient of them to make up the total of 468 it seems to me consistent with our earlier policy simply to move forward the cut-off date until such time as we have the requisite number. If, of course, it transpires that any of the "UK refusals" do, after all, meet the present criteria and have somehow been overlooked previously, there is no reason why they should not be included amongst those we would now accept.

5.

It is perhaps worth mentioning in this context a separate but related This is issue which I understand has been of some concern to your officials. the proposal,

and

we should put forward by UNHCR

other agencies, that increase the rate of arrival SO that all 468 will have arrived within the first year.

This is not a proposal which I am ready to accept. The whole purpose of phasing arrivals over a two year period was to enable the burden both on the voluntary agencies in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom and on the It is necessary local authorities here to be spread evenly over the period.

to take into account in this context not only the arrivals from Hong Kong but also the fact that the Vietnamese authorities now seem to be issuing an increasing number of exit permits to people whom we have previously agreed to accept for settlement under the Immigration Rules on family reunion grounds: as a result the numbers arriving in the United Kingdom each month may amount to 40 or more. It would, in my view, be unwise to increase this burden still further and I therefore see no reason to re-open this whole area of policy.

6.

To sum up, I propose that we should agree to make up the projected shortfall in the numbers arriving from Hong Kong by accepting others who meet our existing criteria, but that we should resist any attempts to extend our commitment beyond the previously agreed limits. I would be grateful to know if you agree with this proposal.

пе

ne Sanders.

Сурочно

(approved by the I fome scintay in signed in his

ironde)

March 1988

CONFIDENTIAL