MC/INF/175 Page 2
"As the Expanded Parole Program nears completion I wish to express to you the Department's deep appreciation for the outstanding job done by the ICEM staffs round the world in implementing the Expanded Parole Program for 11,000 additional Indochinese refugees. The program, involving a complex system of pre-checks, made it possible to move these refugees directly from camps in Thailand and elsewhere to their sponsors in the United States without the establishment of intermediate resettlement centers in the United States, was done in the case of the earlier Indochinese evacuation. Our inability to use reception centers added enormously to the complexities of the program and necessitated a maximum effort to move these refugees quickly. The ICEM staffs responded to the challenge magnificently and we congratulate you for it... 11
as
This cable was sent to ICEM in recognition of the part it played in the EPP, but this could not have succeeded without the intensive placement efforts of the Voluntary Agencies in the United States, which was the main factor in avoiding the need for intermediate resettlement centres. As the pressure of EPP processing work declined, there were progressive reductions in the temporary staff employed for the special United States unit in the ICEM Bangkok Office so that from a peak figure of 56 persons, by the end of the year only three persons were left to be incorporated into the normal
office staff.
5. Despite the resettlement from Thailand in 1976 of some 23,500 persons with ICEM assistance and some 1,000 others outside ICEM arrangements, the figures for the "camp" population in the country remained largely unchanged, being at its highest (80,467)
at the end of March and 77,030 by the end of December 1976. The situation had not improved as at 31 March 1977, when the total reported was 78,528, comprising 10,744 Khmers, 65,066 Laotians and 2,718 Vietnamese (including 1,273 "boat people"). Due to unsettled conditions in Thailand itself, the Thai authorities are extremely concerned
by the large number of new arrivals, a stream which continues even though there are
reports of more stringent border controls by the countries of origin. With a reduction
in funding by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
for the upkeep of refugees, various measures to enable the refugees to become more
self-sustaining, such as the formation of co-operatives to sell vegetables or domestic
animals raised by the refugees, have been introduced by the Thai authorities.
6. The problem of the "boat people" continues to preoccupy international attention, since UNHCR reports some 2,800 unsettled persons from this category in Brunei,
Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. As