TNAG-1802-FCO40-2562-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-resettlement-in-the-UK-1988 — Page 230

CONFIDENTIAL

DRAFT

Foreign and Home Secretaries

From:

To: Prime Minister

VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE IN HONG KONG: RESETTLEMENT

We must

1. The Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary wrote to Mr Powell on 17 October about the outcome of the second round of talks with the Vietnamese authorities on the return of Vietnamese We have taken the first important step boat people in Hong Kong. towards achieving our objective of the return of all boat people who do not qualify to be treated as political refugees.

The beginning of the now focus on those who do qualify. repatriation exercise will reinforce the deterrent effect of our new policies and reduce further the rate of illegal departures for Hong Kong. The latest figures are encouraging and show very few new arrivals since mid-September: a much greater reduction than the normal seasonal decline at this time of year. be hope, therefore, that the problem is finite.

becoming

Λ

There can

Of those

ON

2. There are now some 25,000 boat people in Hong Kong. 9,500 arrived after the introduction of screening on 16 June. screening decisions have yet been announced but, Initial results

will qualify to be treated as indicate that very few refugees: their future lies in Vietnam. arrived before the introduction of screening and await resettlement as refugees.

if any

The rest, some 15,500,

It is the largest population of

Screening will mean that very

But the current rate of

refugee boat people in the region. few indeed are added to their number. reduction through resettlement (2,500 in the past 12 months) is

Even if that level of commitment is sustained unacceptably slow.

it will take a further 6 years before all 15,500 have been resettled. And over time governments who do not have our own direct responsibility for Hong Kong will tend to let the territory's needs slip down their list of priorities.