(iii)
(iv)
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thereafter at 30 a month;
these programmes would run on until an additional 1,000 boat
people had been resettled.
This would take roughly 31⁄2 years,
until the end of 1991;
our total offer of 1,000 additional resettlement places would form the basis for energetic negotiations with the other main resettlement countries to secure the maximum matching
additional bids.
A
B
C
Background
3.
The Secretary of State is familiar with the general background.
It is to Our present resettlement commitment dates from May 1987.
take 468 boat people identified as meeting relaxed family reunion criteria, at a rate of 20 a month. This will be exhausted in May or June 1989. In his minute to the Prime Minister of 6 June on the new policy in Hong Kong the Secretary of State commented that in practice he did not think there was any prospect of securing help from our friends in tackling the residual problem unless we were prepared also to do something ourselves.
4.
The Secretary of State is aware of earlier contacts which we have had with the Home Office at Minister of State level, before the present crisis broke in Hong Kong. Mr Reddaway's minute of 29 March recorded a discussion between Lord Glenarthur and Mr Renton at which possible elements of a continued resettlement commitment were discussed. The Secretary of State minuted the Home Secretary on 31
March endorsing these proposals.
I do not think
5. The present proposal, compared with the ideas earlier put to the Home Office, envisages the same rate of resettlement in the UK. This would be 30 a month, compared with 20 a month under the existing offer and 40 a month under its predecessor. the Home Office could plausibly argue that this would swamp reception facilities. We do however now envisage a higher total number of resettlement places (1,000 over about 3 years rather than 500 over about 2 years). I believe this is justified for the
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