TNAG-1793-FCO40-2553-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation--including-Opera-1988 — Page 13

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British Embassy Bangkok

Dr M D Reilly

SEAD

FCO

Izai

Mike,

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Prime. I

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Your reference

Our reference

Date 12 June 1988

HKD 243/8

INDOCHINESE REFUGEES

1.

In case you have not already seen it, I enclose a copy of a speech made on 6 June to the IRAC (Indochina Resource Action Committee) sponsored conference on the Southeast Asian Refugee crisis, by Jonathan Moore, US Coordinator for Refugee Affairs. My American colleagues have described this document as detailing an important change in US policy towards the refugee problem in the region.

2.

As you will see, Moore states that US policy is 'to discourage clandestine departures from Vietnam and to maintain resettlement'. In acknowledging the need to discourage the continued high rates of Vietnamese departures, Moore emphasises that the preservation of first asylum for refugees remains the US'S 'foremost concern'. However, the Americans have made what appears to be substantial concessions to ASEAN countries of first asylum in order to encourage maintainance of the status quo. In effect, they have responded to just about all the demands of first asylum countries which emerged from the Cha-am Seminar here last month (my letter of 6 June refers).

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