TNAG-2324-FCO40-3368-Hong-Kong-Bill-of-Rights-Vietnamese-boat-people-1991 — Page 61

HKC 241/4

RECENT

11 APR 1991

further tel.

39

Mr. 6x miv

Ms Majur

- please pursue

in my

aboence

28/3

CONFIDENTIAL

FROM:

PS/Lord Caithness

DATE:

27 March 1991

Private Secretary

CC:

PS/Mr Lennox-Boyd PS/PUS

Sir J Coles

Mr Beamish

Mr Burns

Ms Evans, UND

Mr Colvin, SEAD Ms Barrett,

Legal Advisers

h

Per

1/4

Mr Crystal, News Dept Mr Davies, FED

Special Advisers

Mr Powell, Planners

Mr

Pl,

HKD

VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE (VBP) AND THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (ICCPR)

(37)

1. Lord Caithness held a meeting this morning to discuss your submission of 25 March (below). He is not satisfied with the recommendations as they stand at present. He believes that more thinking needs to be done about what is being proposed and about possible alternative ways of proceeding. He does not wish to be rail-roaded by Hong Kong's timetable.

2. The Minister's fundamental concern is that the recommendations in your submission do not seem to provide a permanent or complete solution to the problem of how to deal effectively with VBPs while at the same time respecting as far as possible Hong Kong's and HMG's obligations under the ICCPR. He is not sure that the advantages of the action proposed

(with the potential risk of concentrating attention on the very areas where we are vulnerable) outweigh the convenience of continuing with the present system, which has served adequately up to now, unchanged.

3. The Minister's particular observations are that:

the proposed amendments to the powers to detain may encourage the courts to instruct the Hong Kong Government to increase the resources it puts into screening rather than reduce the likelihood of a successful appeal against

detention;

/ should there

CONFIDENTIAL