TNAG-1790-FCO40-2550-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-resettlement-in-third-countri-1988 — Page 77

UNITED KINGDOM MISSION 37-39 rue de Vermont, 1202 GENEVA Telex: 22956

Telegrams: Prodrome, Geneva Telephone: 34.38.00, 33.23.85

223/17

HKD 24317

22 August 1988

Our ref: UN 243/518/1

x/

Madame Marina Demierre Chef-Adjoint de Secteur

ICRC

17 avenue de la Paix

1211 Geneva 10

ره

Misy Slater

Me

What is the yssition

Rech receurd attent

x/ below?

file

now an

Ūms

30

18/9

1. My Ambassador has asked me to reply to your letter of 6 June concerning the issue of resettlement of Vietnamese land refugees in Thailand.

2. Your letter listed three sets of priority cases. With regard to the first set (five persons with family links in Hong Kong) we are awaiting information from the Hong Kong authorities and will be in touch with you on receipt of this information.

3. With regard to the other two sets (64 persons and 24 dependants who have been living in camps for over five years, and 50 persons and 17 dependants who have deserted from the Vietnamese army), we do not have enough information to consider whether any might be admitted to the United Kingdom.

4.

There is currently a quota of 60 for the admission of Vietnamese refugees from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, and selection is based on extended family reunion criteria. A spouse and minor children of a refugee who is already in the United Kingdom are normally admitted and, in the cases covered by the quota mentioned above, grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren and siblings and their families can also be considered for admission. If anyone on the ICRC list was the spouse or minor child of a refugee already in the United Kingdom we would admit them; if there were some with lesser links to the United Kingdom we would be prepared to consider them.

/However,