TNAG-1795-FCO40-2555-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation--including-Opera-1988 — Page 63

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5.

The emphasis locally will be on the need to strike a suitable balance between a policy sufficiently tough to deter prospective economic migrants and sufficiently humane to preserve Hong Kong's

international reputation and fullfil our obligations to genuine refugees. The line will be :

a)

b)

c)

a)

e)

the new policy is ....

(factual

information on treating all Vietnamese boat arrivals as illegal immigrants; availability of screening and appeal procedures etc);

a change of policy is needed because ...(the two major factors of increased number of arrivals vis-a-vis low resettlement rate);

the new policy does not apply to VRS already in Hong Kong whose status as refugees is unchanged and UNHCR will be asked to eventually take over responsibility for these refugees ;

the new policy does not affect Chinese IIS or ECVIIs who will continue to be

repatriated to China as before; and

the new policy has been made known to the Vietnamese Government through various channels.

International Community

(Other than Diplomatic Campaign. See Annex D)

6.

In describing the new policy, the basic message for use overseas will be the same as the one given locally although it is anticipated that the thrust of follow up questions will focus more on the humanitarian implications. After UK approval for the new policy, we intend to liaise closely with the Commissioner London, and with our North American offices (and, through them, with our American PR consultant) to devise tailor-made publicity materials and strategy. At this stage, we envisage the following:

a)

special briefing in HK for all locally based foreign correspondents in addition to press conference;

G.F. 316

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