§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a statement about the latest report of the Joint Committee for Refugees from Vietnam.
§ Mr. BrittanThe Joint Committee for Refugees from Vietnam reported to me that the refugees from Vietnam whom we have received in this country remain at a considerable disadvantage in terms of language, employment opportunity and in their access to other services. It recommended that the three refugee agencies—the British Refugee Council, Ockenden Venture and Refugee Action—should receive further funding from the Home Office in order to complete a three-year programme which they would jointly put to me. I accepted this recommendation in principle and asked for a programme to be prepared. I can now announce that agreement has been reached on a level of Home Office financial support—£250,000 in the first year—for a programme to assist the development of locally based support and initiatives to help the Vietnamese community.
I should like to place on record the Government's gratitude to the members of the joint committee and its chairman, Sir Arthur Peterson KCB, MVO, for the way in which it has co-ordinated the Vietnamese reception and settlement programme. I have accepted a recommendation from the chairman that it would be appropriate at this stage to wind up the committee and to allow further coordination of work on the Vietnamese programme to be undertaken by the British Refugee Council through its joint operations committee, which Sir Arthur also chairs.
A copy of the joint committee's second report has been placed in the Library of the House.