TNAG-1801-FCO40-2561-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-resettlement-in-the-UK-1988 — Page 179

FIMON

PTAADB

HUD 243/12

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

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Miss C J Stewart

B1 Division

Home Office

Lunar House CROYDON

Telephone 01- 270 2652

Your reference

Our reference

Date

26 February 1988

18

Dear Christine,

HOME AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: FOLLOW-UP TO LAST ENQUIRIES

1.

Further to our recent telephone calls I can now give you our further comments on the Government's original reply to Recommendations 2, 3, 5 and 6 of HAC1984/5 HC72-1.

Closed camps

2.

Recommendation 2:

The considerations remain substantially the same as they were in the original reply. For the first three years after the introduction of the closed camps policy arrivals in Hong Kong fell steadily. Arrivals have increased again in the last two years in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the region. We nevertheless believe that the policy has deterred many potential refugees from undertaking the dangerous journey to Hong Kong: without the closed camps the rate of arrivals would have been even greater.

Education and training

3.

Recommendation 3:

Recently further proposals for education, vocational training and work programmes have been made by UNHCR. These are under consideration by the Hong Kong Government. [I enclose a copy of Recommendation 3 with our amendments on it which bring it up to

datel.

Confronting the problem

4.

Recommendation 5(iv):

In May 1986 the Hong Kong Government announced their quota of 250 places for Vietnamese refugees for resettlement in Hong Kong. The places are for ethnic Chinese who have been in Hong Kong since before July 1982, and have been offered at the rate of 20 per month. To date, not all of these places have been taken up.

The diplomatic offensive

5.

Recommendation 6:

Since the announcement in May 1987 of the UK offer to resettle a further 468 named Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong