TNAG-2035-FCO40-2899-Visits-from-countries-other-than-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 87

5.

This last point was to lead to a major disagreement between the British and US Governments, which not even the special relationship was to bridge. The Steering Committee met immediately after the Geneva Conference and then again in Bangkok in July. At its third meeting in October, the United States even tried to block discussion of alternative forms of repatriation of the screened out, arguing that the voluntary programme had not been given sufficient time to work and that such discussion would be premature. This was directly contrary to the remit of the International Conference, and to the evidence from Hong Kong of the increasing numbers of people determined after screening not to be refugees, less than 1% of whom were willing to volunteer to return to Vietnam. The meeting ended in disarray, to be reconvened as part 2 at a later date.

6. The British and Hong Kong Governments had also been pursuing a second course of action, to cater for the possibility that the multilateral process would fail to tackle the central issue of the screened out. Bilateral negotiations with the Vietnamese on repatriation began in the margins of the International Conference, and, following a meeting in London between the Vietnamese Foreign Minister and the Secretary of State, agreement was reached in Hanoi in late June on the return of a first group of non-refugees who had not volunteered. Negotiations on the modalities of their return, notably the level of reintegration assistance, continued through the summer and were concluded in the late autumn. In the early hours of 12 December, a group of 51 non-volunteers was returned under the

agreement. The operation, conducted under the strict control of police and correctional services authorities to ensure against any disturbances or injury, provoked heated debate in the media and in Parliament. Two former Ministers, Lord Ennals and Mr Timothy Raison MP visited Vietnam in January to report on the return of the non-volunteers and established that they were not being subjected to

ill-treatment.

7. Late in 1989, Amnesty International issued a report on the boat people, raising a number of issues but primarily questioning the integrity of the screening procedure. The Hong Kong Government have been carefully examining the assertion that aspects of the screening

RAMAAK (3)