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3 Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
14 November 1988
From The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State's
Assistant Private Secrétary
Dear M. Craigie
198
Miss
Mr Eggar has asked me to thank you for your letter of 20 October. He very much enjoyed his evening with the Bexleyheath Conservative Association Supper Club. He is grateful for your kind
words on his speech and your good wishes.
You asked about the resettlement of Vietnamese boat people from Hong Kong after the territory becomes a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997. It is our firm intention that the problem should be resolved well before 1997. We are tackling it in two different ways: through screening and repatriation; and through resettlement.
On 16 June the Hong Kong Government introduced, with our approval, a policy of screening all Vietnamese boat people on arrival to distinguish genuine political refugees from those whose motive for leaving Vietnam is simply a desire for a better standard of living. Screening is on the basis of internationally accepted critieria and has been endorsed by the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees (UNHCR). We and Hong Kong are discussing with the UNHCR and the Vietnamese authorities the return to Vietnam under acceptable conditions of all Vietnamese boat people who are screened out as non refugees. It is expected that the first batch of volunteers will be returning shortly, under the auspices of
UNHCR.
The other aspect of the problem is the resettlement in the West of those boat people in Hong Kong who qualify as refugees (ie all those who arrived before the introduction of screening and those (very few) who are screened in as genuine refugees). In the last ten years we have resettled in the UK over 13,000 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong and many more have found homes in other countries. We are continuing to resettle refugees from Hong Kong at a rate of about 20 per month. We continue to take all available opportunities to press other countries to increase their rate of resettlement of Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong. An international conference to find a comprehensive solution to the problem is likely to be held next year.
Ian T R Craigie Esq
407 Blackfen Road
Sidcup
KENT
DA15 9NN
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