The documents show that after Britain took one boatload of refugees from Vietnam, Thatcher pressed ministers to find ways to decline any more.
In a handwritten note on a memo from Lord Carrington, then Foreign Secretary, she wrote on June 8, 1979: "We can't go on like this and in spite of our discussions about the need to find a defence against taking more - none has been forthcoming. Indeed I wonder if the matter has been pursued at all?"
Britain was also facing the prospect of taking in white Rhodesians as the country moved toward majority rule.
Minutes of a meeting about the boat people between Mrs Thatcher, Lord Carrington, and William Whitelaw, the Home Secretary, on July 19 recorded: "The PM mentioned the problem which would face the UK over the refugees from Rhodesia, following independence, but said that she had less objection to refugees such as Rhodesians, Poles and Hungarians since they could more easily be assimilated into British society."
Thatcher also thought it "quite wrong" that immigrants should be given council housing when white citizens were not, said the note.
Britain eventually took in 10,000 boat people.
Source: Múlt-kor
