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349 High Commemme, Air Lerbe,
M.V.D., UND SEAD
UKTIIS Geneva, Kartalma,
MEETING OR UNHCR REPRESENTATIVES WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF COUNTRIES OF FINAL DESTINATION AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSION, 30 NOVEMBER 197
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223 M12
Вещкак
1.
At the request of the UNHCR, the Australian High Commissioner made available his conference room for a meeting at which Fir Horan-lierimberg of the UNHCR gave an account of his current tour of Thailand, alaysia and Singapore in preparation for the Consultative keeting in Geneva on 11 and 12 December. Besides the Australians the following missions were represented: United States, United Kingdom, France, Federal e ublic of Germany, Norway, Netherlands and Canada. hr lioman-Herinberg was accompanied by Miss Drucke of the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur.
2. ile explained that originally this tour had been intended to cover more South East Asian countries, but his colleague had unfortunately met with a fatal accident in Geneva just prior to departure so the tour had been much condensed. ne had thought it right to ask for this meeting in the Australian High Commission since the Australian Government had been the prime movers behind the proposal for the 11-12 December meeting. He then said that those ideas which the UNHCR had earlier had, with a view to solving the refugee problem, had very largely been overtaken by the dramatic events on the cast Gast of alaysia for the last two to three weeks. He admitted that it was now difficult to see very clearly what form the/ meeting should take. It was now certain that the Vietnamese Government would not be represented. They had indicated to the UNHCR a few days ago that they would not come because the "problem of the so-called boat people would be at the centre of the discussion". They had also taken the line that they were not hindering people from leaving but on the other hand they were not encouraging them either.
3. Mr Homan-llerimberg emphasised that, while the boat people problem was in the limelight now, there still existed the very much bigger problem in Thailand of refugees from Laos, Kampuchea and some from Vietnam. The Thais were increasingly concerned at the prospect of the international community ignoring their problems because of the recent influx into halaysia. General Kriangsak had issued rather a firm statement on the refugee question two days ago. In hr Homan-.ierimberg's opinion this did not reflect any particular worsening of the situation in Thailand but was more to put down a marker prior to the Geneva meeting.
4. is to Malaysia, he hd just come from visiting camps including that on Pulau Redang which now held 23,000 people in
size an area the same as that holding several hundred people in Singapore. The situation on the east coast was clearly 'now serious and potentially explosive. The Halaysian Government were giving serious thought to taking federal control over the problem and thus relieving the States who were currently responsible. might help to mitigate the dhnic problem.
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