TNAG-1796-FCO40-2556-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation--including-Opera-1988 — Page 238

Background and Argument

The talks in Hanoi

CONFIDENTIAL

4. A first round of talks with the Vietnamese took place in Hanoi

on 4-5 August. They ended inconclusively. In essence the outcome

amounted to:

agreement that the Vietnamese would take realistic and

effective measures to stem the outflow of boat people:

agreement in principle that some boat people in Hong Kong should be repatriated:

but Vietnamese insistence that only volunteers should be

returned:

and a clear indication that the Vietnamese are looking for

financial aid to assist the reintegration of returnees.

5. The Vietnamese approach to the talks evidently formed part of a wider strategy directed in the longer term towards international

respectability and access to development aid. We judge the

Vietnamese insistence on voluntary returns to be essentially

tactical. If some sort of financial contribution is forthcoming to

assist reintegration and the Vietnamese were careful not to ask

for wider development aid - it should be possible to move towards an arrangement permitting the return of more substantial numbers of boat people.

6.

But there will be difficult practical problems to overcome.

These include the need to involve UNHCR as the channel for financial

assistance, the supervisor of a repatriation programme and the

monitor of the conditions in which boat people return. In principle

UNHCR are ready to play that role: but their approach is

bureaucratic and their inclination will be to favour cumbersome

multilateral arrangements also covering boat people in other places

of first asylum.

CONFIDENTIAL