192. To meet immediate needs, household equipment and tools were distributed to new returnees enabling them to begin their task of reconstruction as rapidly as possi Since cultivation could not begin until the fields had been reclaimed and irrigated urgent food supplies were also needed. Substantial supplies of rice were therefore provided by UNHCR for this purpose and appropriate measures were taken to ensure their speedy distribution to those in need.
193. Meanwhile, plans for longer-term rehabilitation were under preparation, particularly in areas of widespread devastation. At the request of the Government, UNHCR provided assistance in a number of sectors of greatest need.
194. Expenditure for these various forms of aid totalled $1,532,000 in 1977, including as major items $675,000 for costs involved in the return movement to the villages and provision of resettlement kits and $405,000 for emergency food supplies.
2. Lebanon
195. The emergency phase of UNHCR assistance to internally displaced Lebanese ended in mid-1977. In June 1977 the High Commissioner appealed to Governments for contributions towards a programme for the return of the displaced persons and their rehabilitation in their villages of origin. Twenty-five such villages were selected in consultation with the Lebanese Government. This programme did not seek to cover the repair of all damaged or destroyed homes, but rather to act as a catalyst. Like the emergency phase, it was carried out within the framework of United Nations assistance in Lebanon.
196. UNHCR's special action in Lebanon received complementary assistance from other members of the United Nations system, notably the World Health Organization, which continued to procure medical supplies; UNICEF, through the development of water resources for domestic use in rural areas and the provision of school equipment; the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) which made fertilizers available to the Lebanese Government; and the World Food Programme which developed "food for work" projects in villages on the Government priority
list.
197. Expenditure under UNHCR's special humanitarian programme in Lebanon amounted in 1977 to $1,055,000, of which $642,000 were for relief supplies, $150,000 for transport costs and $185,000 for initial measures under the return and rehabilitiation programme in two villages.
198. UNHCR's activities in Lebanon under its General Programmes were again affected by events in the area, which impeded the implementation of measures to assist the local settlement or resettlement elsewhere of refugees in Lebanon. Efforts in 1977 were thus essentially directed to re-establishing effective counselling services and to providing immediate assistance as required.
3.
Thailand
199. Of all the countries of asylum in South-East Asia, Thailand has continued to receive the largest influx of displaced persons from the Indo-Chinese peninsula. Their number stood at 97,600 on 31 December 1977, as compared with nearly 77,000 at the end of 1976. Departures to countries of resettlement during the year totalled 14,021, making a total of over 50,000 since 1975 when UNHCR's assistance was first
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