TNAG-1972-FCO40-2805-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation-1989 — Page 77

CONFIDENTIAL

H

15.

I

Lord Glenarthur's talks with the Vietnamese in Hanoi will

have provided an invaluable opportunity to explain our concerns to

them and to impress upon them the need for them to take a more

responsible attitude towards the boat people problem. We must keep up the pressure on them, both bilaterally and in multilateral fora.

In this context, Hong Kong telno 1142, reporting a conversation

between Hong Kong's Refugee Coordinator and the Vietnamese

delegation leader at a sub-committee meeting on reception and status

determination in Hong Kong, is an encouraging indication that the

Vietnamese may eventually be ready to consider mandatory

repatriation.

Private Secretary

VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE IN HONG KONG

ARPane

нко MKD 24319

181

A R Paul

1. This is an exceptionally difficult subject and it is hardly surprising that Departments have not found it easy to agree on what advice to give Ministers. I offer my own thoughts below, with apologies for their length.

2.

The screening policy introduced in June last year was a gamble. The aim was essentially two-fold: to deter boat people from setting out for Hong Kong; and to devise a framework within which people arriving illegally who were clearly not refugees and stood no chance of resettlement could be returned to Vietnam. But Ministers always recognised that if the new policy was not effective as a deterrent, and if it proved impossible to make early progress over repatriation, Hong Kong could be landed with an accumulating population of boat people who could neither be resettled (and were not even eligible for resettlement) or be sent back to Vietnam.

CONFIDENTIAL

13.