CHAPTER II
ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES
GENERAL REVIEW
69. In accordance with its Statute and the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, the primary objective of UNHCR's assistance activities is to help refugees to achieve permanent solutions to their problems and to assist displaced persons to resume a normal existence. The three main permanent solutions for refugees are voluntary repatriation, resettlement through migration and local settlement in the country of asylum. Assistance activities had again to be considerably expanded in 1977 to cover newly emerging refugee problems and to meet the needs of continuing influxes of refugees, especially in Africa and Asia.
70. In Africa, with the return to their homes and rehabilitation of many thousands of uprooted persons in Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique, and later in Angola, UNHCR has been able gradually to phase out the Special Programmes for persons in these three countries. The ensuing reduction in the caseload was, however, more than offset by serious new problems, notably those of Ethiopian refugees in Djibouti, a major influx of Zimbabweans, large numbers of student refugees from South Africa, an influx of Zairian refugees into Angola and increasing numbers of Namibian refugees. More recently, UNHCR was called upon to help refugees and displaced persons in the Ogaden. In Asia, there was a continuing influx of Indo-Chinese displaced persons arriving, mainly by sea, in Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia and in the Far East, while in Lebanon UNHCR undertook a programme of assistance to internally displaced Lebanese.
71. At the same time, continuing assistance was required to achieve permanent solutions for large groups of refugees and displaced persons in Africa and Asia and to provide relief assistance for refugees granted temporary asylum pending their permanent settlement.
72. In Latin America, relief assistance for refugees was still required, pending resettlement or integration.
73. In Cyprus, the High Commissioner continued to discharge his function as Co-ordinator of United Nations Humanitarian Assistance for needy displaced Cypriots numbering nearly 200,000.
74. In view of the aforementioned developments, as well as the increasing cost of projects, UNHCR's expenditures rose from some $90 million in 1976 to nearly $111 million in 1977.
75. The assistance programmes, which are described in chapters III to VI of this report, are now designated as General Programmes and Special Programmes. The General Programmes include the former annual programme and the High Commissioner's Emergency Fund, while the Special Programmes cover UNHCR's special operations of humanitarian assistance and all other trust funds, including the Refugee Education Account. This form of presentation, which was endorsed by the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme at its twenty-eighth
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