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CONFIDENTIAL
The Burmese Government have requested UN help with repatriation and resettlement but a number of problems still remain. Returning refugees will be housed in camps in Burma until strict documentation checks can be made.
It is not yet clear how many of those who fled will be regarded as "legitimate residents" by the Burmese authorities and many refugees now in Bangladesh will be unwilling and/or afraid to return to Burma.
Refugees in and from Latin America
Chile, Argentina and Uruguay are the principal Latin American countries where refugee problems have arisen in recent years. Since the overthrow of President Allende's Government by the Armed Forces in September 1973, tens of thousands of refugees have left Chile. They are mainly Chileans who have been impri- soned and later exiled, or who have suffered or feared other forms of political persecution; but they also include over 5,000 non-Chileans who had settled there (already as refugees in many cases) before the coup. Most of them were received by other Latin American or Western European countries. (Of the Communist countries, only Cuba, Romania and East Germany have accepted significant numbers. Though the military regime in Chile remains repressive, the situation has eased somewhat in the last two years and the flow of refugees has now slowed considerably.
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In March 1974 HMG announced that it would give sympathetic consideration to visa applications from Chilean refugees; and by August 1978 some 2,800 had been admitted to Britain than to any other European country except France and Sweden. Visas have also been granted to many hundreds more who have either gone elsewhere or remained in Chile. Since 1975, priority has been given as a matter of policy to cases where there are marked compassionate circumstances and to people who have family or other connexions with the UK or who are acceptable as students or academics under a special scheme run by the World University Service. All approvals are subject to the applicants being personally acceptable.
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In the last months of the Peronist government and after the military takeover in March 1976, foreign refugees in Argentina (mainly Chileans but also many Uruguayans) became a major target for harrassment, abduction, torture and murder by extreme right wing terrorist organisations virtually indistinguishable from sections of the police and military. In June 1976, the UNHCR appealed to 34 governments for urgent resettlement opportunities for a minimum of 1,000 refugee families thought to be in danger. The situation has eased in the last year as, with UNHCR help, increasing numbers of refugees have been admitted by other countries and moved on from Argentina. The UNHCR have been able to reduce their staff in Buenos Aires. The main problem now is the large number of Argentine nationals, mostly in detention, who wish to exercise the right of option to leave Argentina.
CONFIDENTIAL
/In