74 of the 95 have already been approved and the remaining
21 are,
I believe, expected to be approved soon. This
leaves 21 outstanding places for which we have not yet
received applications.
As you know, we have told UNHCR that we are prepared
to accept a few applications, within the quota of 116,
from those on board the "ROLAND" and "LEAP DAL", provided
the applicants are themselves originally "boat people".
I understand all those on board "ROLAND" were in fact
in this category, although some of them, at the time of
embarkation, had not been registered previously as having
temporary asylum: happily, all of these have been allowed
to disembark, if only temporarily, in Malaysia.
The problem of the "LEAP DAL" is, I agree, much more
serious. Of the 252 persons put aboard in Thailand last
February, I understand only a handful were "boat people"
Only 50 were registered
and that over 200 were Laotians.
with UNHCR and most are reported to have paid an "agent"
up to 800 US dollars for "a place to Australia" I believe
•
UNHCR have made steady progress in finding resettlement
places for them, but that 96 are still aboard. While I
have every sympathy for those still onboard "LEAF DAL"
who were not originally "boat peple", I doubt very much
that the Home Office would wish to accept applications
from them (unless they had otherwise close ties with the
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