TNAG-1792-FCO40-2552-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation--including-Opera-1988 — Page 265

CONFIDENTIAL

C

would not be in Hong Kong's own broader interests. The Governor has

now sent us a further telegram of clarification (Hong Kong telno 1598). He is not ruling out the idea of screening new arrivals; and indeed his present view is that this would be necessary. But he wishes to make clear (and we acknowledge) that this will lessen the

deterrent effect.

6. In the light of these exchanges, we seem to be moving towards the conception of a policy which would contain the following

elements:

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

new Vietnamese arrivals in Hong Kong would no longer be automatically deemed to have refugee status;

a system of screening on arrival would be introduced to

determine genuine refugees. This would be designed to ensure that no person in genuine fear of persecution on political, religious or other grounds would be

repatriated;

those arrivals who were screened out would not be

available for resettlement. They would be detained

indefinitely in closed camps, pending eventual return to Vietnam when this can be agreed with the Vietnamese

authorities;

(iv)

a major effort would need to be made to tackle the residual refugee population in Hong Kong (comprising those who had arrived prior to the introduction of the new policy, together with those new arrivals screened in as

genuine refugees). The Hong Kong Government would no

doubt seek substantial new resettlement commitments from

the UK and other resettlement countries. They would probably also be ready to contemplate absorption into Hong Kong society of a proportion of the backlog once they were satisfied that the problem was being reduced to manageable dimensions.

CONFIDENTIAL