TNAG-1910-FCO40-2714-Financial-assistance-from-the-UK-Government-to-Vietnamese-re-1989 — Page 87

FCS/89/134

CONFIDENTIAL

HKB 243/11

CHIEF SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

FILE:**

qi

Vietnamese Boat People in Hong Kong

1. I was most grateful for your letter of 12 June and

the conditional offer of £5 million from the 1989/90

Reserve towards the proposed Regional Processing Centre.

As my memorandum (OD (K)89) (3)) on the outcome of the

Conference explains, this played an important part in

getting that particular objective off the ground.

2. I am now writing about reintegration assistance to

non-voluntary returnees from Hong Kong, which we will

need to offer if the Vietnamese Government are to be

persuaded to cooperate in a mandatory repatriation scheme.

As you know, the Vietnamese Foreign Minister is visiting

London on 28/29 June and I would like to be in a position

to explain to him what we have in mind.

3.

You will recall that OD on 8 June laid down the

objective of securing compulsory repatriation to Vietnam

of those identified as non-refugees, backed by appropriate

international funding. Given the bilateral nature of our

present negotiations with the Vietnamese (and the

opposition of the Americans, UNHCR and others to

mandatory repatriation), I do not hold out any hope of

acquiring international funding at this stage, however

desirable this may be. I believe that we have no

alternative but to source integration assistance for a

/bilateral

CONFIDENTIAL