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Vietnamese Refugees 15 DECEMBER 1978
[Mr. Goodhart.]
to the boats because of religious persecu- tion. The high proportion of Chinese in the latest exodus is a clear indication of the mounting ethnic discrimination against the Chinese in Vietnam since relations between Hanoi and Peking became so acrimonious.
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How many would like to follow the 300,000 who have fled? Is it 1 million or perhaps 2 million? It is plain that the Vietnamese authorities are tacitly encouraging those whom they call the dissident consumer-oriented elements to get out. However, embarassing that is for us, it is a rather better attitude than that of the East Germans who deploy barbed wire, land mines, savage dogs and armed sentries to prevent their people from fleeing.
Last month, along with millions of others, I sat comfortably in front of a television set while 2,500 refugees were tossed about off the shores of Malaysia on the 1,500-ton steamer the "Hai Hong". The refugees were accused of having paid for their passage. One un- sympathetic official said that they should be treated as unwelcome tourists, not refugees. If that were true, we saw on our television sets one of the most crowded cruises in the history of travel.
To experience equally unpleasant con- ditions every man, woman and child in my constituency would have to put to sea for a fortnight in an undermanned, under- provisioned and under-crewed Royal".
"Ark
One can understand the concern of the countries that are in the front line when it comes to receiving refugees. In the first 11 months of the year Malaysia, which is not a rich country and which has a delicately internal racial balance, played host to $2,336 boat people from Vietnam, of whom 39,0000 are not classified as refugees. They have acquired a type of floating squatter status.
The other front-line State, Thailand, is also poor and has its fair share of ethnic problems. It received 58,509 refugees in the first 11 months of the year. Most of them are Laotians who have swarmed across the Mekong River for much the same reasons as the thousands of Viet- namese who have taken to the sea.
The official refugee population in Thai- land has now reached 130,000. In recent
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Vietnamese Refugees
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months the Thais have made desperate efforts to appear as inhospitable as pos- sible. There are two reasons why this flood of refugees has curdled the natural kind- liness and humanity of the Malaysian and Thai administrators. The first reason is that they fear that a friendly reception will encourage more people to go there. Nobody can tell for certain how many potential refugees there are. In the past it was thought that a chilly reception might deter some potential refugees from setting off at all. Plainly, this inhibition has been overcome by the knowledge that the complacency of the Vietnamese authorities might not last for ever.
Secondly, there is a natural fear that any Government who sympathetically bent over to pick up the baby might be left holding it for a long time. Each country in the areas knows, or believes, that if it throws open its frontiers and ports the rich nations of the West will heave a sigh of relief and turn away from the problem.
We need money,
What is needed? organisation and imagination. The organi- sation for dealing with the refugee prob- lem in the Far East is provided mainly by the United Nations High Commis- sioner for Refugees who now has a staff of 50 in Malaysia alone.
In the past I have been critical of the work of some United Nations agencies. I expect that I shall be critical of them in the future. But I am not critical of the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. I have seen some of the camps in Thailand. The pro- gramme seems to be well run and well organised by men with a sense of mission.
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Money should be forthcoming. understand that the High Commissioner wants £30 million this year to maintain the refugees. He should get it. At long last Japan is making a major contribu- tion.
Two years ago Britain contributed nothing to this refugee programme. I condemned the Government in the House. Perhaps the Minister will remember some of the acrimonious arguments that we had. It seemed to be wrong that we should turn our backs. But today our financial contribution is one of the best. I am glad to see that we appear to have increased that contribution by £1 million in the past six weeks. A contribution
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Vietnamnic
of £500,000 was a I understand tha tribution was an conference last v has more than do
Last week the Commissioner f special conferenc this problem. It that our Governn were to increase understand that announced that tl Vietnamese refug from the 25,000 the past.
The French, 1,000 refugees a creased their quo
The conference to set up speci islands in the Pa and displaced j cessed for resettle within a specific tees that there problem. It wa at the conference be further 'elab Governments.
For two years tion centres of th in the South-Eas shall not expe searching about The Daily Teleg another four sm refugees, have be : I am glad to s standably, suppo the Americans re they are convert that much will hỉ studies will be p the Americans w
There has also persuading other refugees. Much o fallen on Wester am not sure that
Many of the In immensely adapta I do not believe in moving large fishermen or Laot the cold and pe Beckenham, Birn Brussels.
I am
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