- 4.
d) Admission of Indo-Chinese Refugees to the United Kingdom
The Secretary had been in touch with Dr. Shirley Summerskill's office about the possibility of refugees coming to this country. It was hoped to get a decision shortly.
5.
BANGLADESH
No organisations had anything to report.
6.
TIBETAN REFUGEES
a) Special Appeal for Refugees in Ladakh
Sir Robert ffolkes (SCF Field Officer in India) reported on a visit to Ladakh in July 1976 in response to the appeal by the Dalai Lama for help in that area.
There were just over 4,000 Tibetans in Ladakh, including about 900 children and 300 old people. They had originally been nomads and used to graze in the area. There were cultural differences between them and the local people, who were relatively settled.
The Indian Government had set up a resettlement project for 2,000 refugees on the outskirts of Len. Houses had been provided and land allocated, but this was very poor with little irrigation and it would be three or four years before the land was properly in cultivation. There was therefore great need for new and better land to be bought for the refugee scheme. The land allocated at present in any case belonged to the local people.
Two schools and dispensaries had been started up, but with very limited resources.
This was not a disaster situation at present, but there would be a period until the settlement could be economically viable when there would be definite need for outside help.
The main problems were.-
i) Shortage of milk, vegetables, sugar, salt, vitamins etc. Because of the remoteness of Ladakh the cost of transport was very high and beyond the low incomes of the majority of refugees. This was aggravated by the large number of troops in this forward military area, who bought up spare food and forced up prices.
ii) Although there were some educational and medical facilites, much needed to be done to bring these up to even a minim m standard required by Government.
iii) In some areas there was shortage of fuel; in others there were sufficient
supplies of dung cakes.
The provision of two lorries at approximately £3,000 each would help greatly in the distribution of food and fuel.
The other 2,000 Tibetans in the Ladakh area had not yet been settled. There were some possibilities for permanent settlement but sanction had not yet been given by the Indian Government. It was difficult to make concrete proposals on how to help these people until a solution of the problem, which was basically a political one, had been found and plans drawn up for settlement.
It had not been possible for Sir Robert ffolkes to visit Changtang, where many of these refugees were living, mostly as nomads in tents, as this was near the border of Chinese Tibet and foreigners were not allowed to go there. Their situation was an added reason why it was so difficult to know how to help this group.
.../5
}