TNAG-1802-FCO40-2562-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-resettlement-in-the-UK-1988 — Page 57

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Our reference:

RDI/80 13/26/5

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Your reference:

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CONFIDENTIAL

C Hum Esq

Hong Kong Department

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1

Dear

Mr Humn

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21 December 1988

MKD 243/12

REC

datY

3 JAN 1989

REGISTRY

IN

Tiken

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES AND THE ODP

Following our exchange of correspondence we had a useful meeting. with Alan Paul on 27 October. We discussed UK reception centre capacity, the unpredictable nature of the flow of arrivals under the ODP and the risk that such arrivals might leave the available reception capacity unable to cope with a new intake from Hong Kong. Against this background, our view was, as you know, that if no action was taken to regulate the flow it would be necessary to warn Ministers and to amend appropriately the joint draft minute to the Prime Minister which was then being prepared.

Alan Paul was clearly seized of the importance of addressing the ODP difficulty and we subsequently received a copy of a telex dated 2 November from Hanoi indicating that approaches to both Vietnamese authorities and the UNHCR would be made at the earliest opportunity to argue for a more even and predictable flow for purely administrative reasons.

Since then the joint minute has gone to the Prime Minister and we await her decision. However, we have yet to hear what progress has been made on the ODP front. Several weeks have now passed and the potential for serious problems with ODP arrivals remains untackled so far as we know. Could you let me know what progress has been made with approaches to the Vietnamese authorities and/or UNHCR so that we can appraise our Ministers of the position.