TNAG-1905-FCO40-2709-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-voluntary-and-mandatory-repat-1989 — Page 21

BAGACS (7)

CONFIDENTIAL

agreed inter alia that our objective should be the mandatory repatriation of all non refugees; that we should work for international acceptance of this principle; and that after a trial period if this objective had not been achieved the policy of first asylum as far as Hong Kong was concerned should be abandoned. We are therefore under a clear remit to press ahead with repatriation as quickly as possible.

The US Perspective

17.

While the Hong Kong problem dominates HMG's approach to Indo Chinese refugees, it is only one element in the American perspective. They have resettled about one million Vietnamese since the fall of Saigon in 1975. The trauma of the Vietnam War is still uppermost in their thinking. As far as boat people are concerned their key objective is to retain first asylum not only in Hong Kong but throughout South-East Asia. They object to the principle of repatriating Vietnamese against their will until economic and social conditions in Vietnam have improved. Their position is illogical. The threat to first asylum is mass migration by those who, wretched though their economic and social conditions are, do not meet refugee criteria and therefore have no hope of resettlement.

Argument

18. As Ministers have clearly recognised, only repatriation will bring home to people in Vietnam the message firmly endorsed by the International Conference that the era of automatic resettlement in the West is over. We cannot rely on the Vietnamese authorities to stop the outflow of boat people : it is therefore essential that we find a clear and effective deterrent as soon as possible. We cannot realistically expect to have much impact on current disastrous arrival figures. But it is crucial that we avert a similar catastrophe in the spring and summer of 1990 (the traditional high season for boat people arrivals).

19. We have done well since the Geneva Conference to get the Vietnamese to agree to non voluntary repatriation. That is a significant step forward. We always recognised tht we would have a

CONT YARATM TAT