TNAG-2401-FCO40-3488-Vietnamese-migrants-Orderly-Repatriation-Programme-(ORP)-1992 — Page 133

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DRAFT LETTER FROM PRIVATE SECRETARY TO PS/NO 10

VIETNAMESE MIGRANTS: ORDERLY REPATRIATION PROGRAMME (ORP)

In my letter of 9 March I explained that we had run into difficulty in getting the Vietnamese to allow us to go ahead with the mandatory repatriation of screened-out migrants who were already in the camps in Hong Kong when the ORP was announced. The main stumbling block was the cost to the Vietnamese of reintegrating returnees into their local communities. I said however that there were indications that the Vietnamese might be prepared to allow us to proceed on a trial basis pending agreement on a full-scale programme of flights.

During a recent visit to Hong Kong, Vu Khoan, the Vietnamese Vice Foreign Minister, told officials that it had been decided in Hanoi that we could now move to the next phase of the ORP on such a basis. He envisaged a series of two or three flights - after which we could review progress.

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We should of course have preferred to move directly from phase I to phase II of the ORP, but the Vu Khoan's proposal has its attractions, not least in that it is not apparently linked to a prior financial commitment from Hong Kong on reintegration assistance a point which has been causing considerable difficulty.

The arrangement would keep up the pressure on the camp population to volunteer, since they would know we had the means to return them if they did not. It would also provide the means of returning any new arrivals who do not volunteer to return (they are at present too few to justify a special flight) and of departing criminal offenders (whom the Vietnamese have asked to be returned in groups rather than in ones and twos as now). Once it was under way the Hong Kong authorities would be better placed to request funds for reintegration assistance and this could well kick-start the full mandatory repatriation programme.

There are political considerations however. The Americans have always been opposed to mandatory repatriation to Vietnam (but not, apparently to Mexico or Haiti). The residual camp population are determined to put up with almost any conditions in the belief that eventually a resettlement country will take them in. They are much more likely to resist repatriation than the new arrivals who went back on the earlier flights who were no doubt well aware

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that the game was up. Hong Kong will need to handle the repatriations with great sensitivity including the careful selection of those to be returned. Strongly adverse press comment could well lead the Americans to protest and the Vietnamese to call a halt to further repatriations.

JKLADQ

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