CONFIDENTIAL
people in the UK to 60 a month.
C 3.
Today's letter to the Independent by the Director of the British Refugee Council is generally helpful. It criticises the earlier Independent editorial as an over-simplification of a complex problem, and describes the agreement reached with the Vietnamese
last week as "an important step forward". Dr Barber goes on to call for more specific guarantees covering those returning to Vietnam; urgent improvements in the conditions of refugees in Hong Kong; a full and fair asylum procedure for boat people arriving in Hong Kong; and a commitment to resettle those boat people who arrived before the change of policy.
4.
On the first three of these four points we can provide
reassurance. With the agreement of News Department we are
encouraging the Hong Kong Government Office in London to write to
the Independent with an account of the action taken in Hong Kong to
improve the conditions for boat people and work out fair procedures
for their asylum or repatriation. The question of an increased
resettlement commitment is of course under active consideration: we
are clearing with the Home Office a draft joint minute to the Prime
Minister from the Secretary of State and the Home Secretary, and I
hope to submit this before the end of the week.
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CO Hum
CONFIDENTIAL
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