TNAG-2401-FCO40-3488-Vietnamese-migrants-Orderly-Repatriation-Programme-(ORP)-1992 — Page 137

9 March 1992

Dear Stefan

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FAX 243/2 RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

10 MAR 1992

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Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

London SW1A 2AH

Vietnamese Migrants: Orderly Repatriation Programme (ORP)

(TA)

I wrote on 8 January to bring you up to date on the Orderly Repatriation Programme. I enclose the Foreign Secretary's answer to a question in the House of Commons on 18 February, recounting the latest encouraging

statistics.

developments.

You might like a note on more recent

The repatriation flight on 12 February, with 36 returnees went according to plan. There was very little coverage in the media. The press seem to be losing interest in the repatriation of new arrivals, although we cannot count on the same lack of interest when we try to repatriate a first group of screened-out who were already in the Hong Kong camps when we announced the Orderly Repatriation Programme last October.

We continue to have difficulty in persuading the Vietnamese to move ahead with returning this category. The Vietnamese remain concerned about the costs of reintegration which fall on their local communities. They want more financial help - and have particularly targetted Hong Kong as a source .- before they will agree to the modalities for the return of the hard core of camp residents. Lord Caithness and Sir D Wilson have written to the Vietnamese and we have instructed our Ambassador in Hanoi to keep up the pressure.

There is a glimmer of hope. We had already suggested to the Vietnamese that, if they could not agree now to a full-scale programme of flights, we should proceed on a trial basis until June when both sides could review progress. There is some sign that the Vietnamese MFA will be willing to consider this, and we will try to build on it. With over 20,000 screened-out in Hong Kong who are showing no signs yet of volunteering to return under UNHCR auspices, we need to maintain the regularity of ORP flights to show that we have the will and the means to clear the camps.

In the meantime, UNHCR are continuing with their voluntary flights. There are volunteers in the pipeline,

/although

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