TNAG-1801-FCO40-2561-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-resettlement-in-the-UK-1988 — Page 8

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CONFIDENTIAL

We have now reached the stage where any further large scale arrivals in the next few weeks could well be beyond the capacity of the UK reception centres to cope. With only two weeks notification of arrivals there is very little prospect of negotiations with local authorities for emergency accommodation being successful - and the larger the numbers involved the less likely such negotiations are to succeed in that timescale.

What this means for the current considerations about Hong Kong is that we would have to revise our position to indicate that present reception centre capacity would not be able to accommodate a new intake as well as coping with an increased number of ODP cases and that funds, in addition to the £0.3million already quoted (which itself has still to be found), would be needed to assist the agencies open up and run new centres for that purpose. As we are unable as yet to discuss this with the agencies it is hard to estimate likely additional costs but they could be significant. And new accommodation cannot just be provided overnight. As you know, our Ministers are already concerned about the potential burden the resettlement of a new intake of Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong would represent.

Accordingly, we now need help, urgently, first, to improve the period of notification of ODP departures further; and second, and more importantly, to investigate methods by which to control the departures from Vietnam for the UK so that they become orderly once more in fact as well as name.

We realise that there is considerable sensitivity in this request and we appreciate the difficulties in seeking assistance directly from the Vietnamese. We should nevertheless be glad if you would consider whether our post in Vietnam can put any control on the issue of UK visas or whether indeed we should now be asking UNHCR, who, with the Inter Governmental Committee for Migration, make the appropriate travel arrangements, if they can assist further with advance notification and in controlling the rate of departures.

If the flow cannot be controlled, the consequences could be serious. In the short term we could see refugees who cannot be accommodated either by their families or at the reception centres camping out at Heathrow or on the streets. The effects of this in the winter months, with the potential for adverse press coverage and embarrassment to Ministers, can well be imagined. There would undoubtedly be pressure for government grant aid to enable the voluntary organisations to open new reception centres. With the exception of a contribution in respect of refugees from Hong Kong, VSU does not currently fund the running costs of reception centres but it would be difficult to resist such pressure where refugees arriving under an agreed programme had nowhere else to