TNAG-1908-FCO40-2712-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-voluntary-and-mandatory-repat-1989 — Page 35

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5. The immediate difficulty will be Vietnamese ability to absorb

people back at such a rate. The voluntary programme has shown that with their present facilities they have problems absorbing as many

as 150 a month. Regardless of whether we look at volunteers or

non-volunteers, the next stage in our process of solving the boat

people problem should be to open a channel so that we can obtain a

realistic rate of flow into Vietnam.

6. This will require an approach to the Vietnamese to begin

improving their reception facilities. The first problem is the

slowness of their clearance procedures, which are carried out while

volunteers are still in Hong Kong. Coupled with the limited size of

the transit centre in Hanoi, the result is a long and dispiriting

wait for those who have volunteered to return: itself a strong

disincentive for more volunteers to come forward. The first

requirement would be to negotiate with the Vietnamese that they will

accept volunteers back immediately, for clearance in Vietnam, and

that they will establish transit facilities to enable this to be

done. I recommend that we should negotiate the establishment of

transit centres in Hanoi but also in Haiphong and QuangNing, and

other departure areas, from which it would be easier for people to be absorbed back into their villages.

7. The Vietnamese have made it clear that they are chary about

building transit centres for non-volunteers. If we wished to

persuade them on this basis, negotiations would probably carry a hefty price tag. But they are obliged to accept back volunteers, have repeated their willingness to do so, and in the Vietnam News

Agency release of this week, which caused such a furore, said that

...

"The Vietnamese side

believes that the best solution rests

with the principle of voluntariness and stands ready to work

with the parties concerned toward an appropriate solution based

on respect for humanitarian principles".

If we approached negotiations for transit centres in this spirit,

they would be less likely to refuse. (This view is reinforced by

C Telno 655, just in from Hanoi). And we could add the offer of

GABAAJ (2)

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