A
1367
Indo-China:
{ LORDS]
[Lord Monson.] spotted and merge into the population. The North-Eastern part of Thailand is an arid, infertile and consequently very poor part of that country, and therefore the problems of their entry are quite con- siderable.
My Lords, to revert to the internment camp or refugee camp (call it what you will) at Songkhla, at the time I arrived there were just over 1,000 people crammed into a space about three-quarters of the size of this Chamber. It was what was laughingly called the dry season. There never really is a dry season in that part of Thailand, the rubber-producing and tin- mining area, so it was only relatively dry. Accordingly, it was reasonably dry under- foot, but I hate to think what it would have been like in the really rainy season. The huts were constructed of corrugated iron, bamboo and woven reeds, and would have been quite inadequate to keep out a really heavy rainfall. It was good to see that the inhabitants were adequately fed— in quantity if not necessarily in quality— and were adequately clothed. The older people, the adults, had worn but clean clothing; the younger children were decked out in bright new T-shirts emblazoned with the sort of slogans that one sees in the Kings Road or in Kensington High Street. The UN, I think, had provided the food; and magnificent work was being done by a Scandinavian couple. I later heard that they were Swedish missionaries, and if indeed they were Swedish that certainly partly atones for the radical chic support of Sweden for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese, and its disgraceful refusal to admit any of the victims of Communism within the last few years.
+6
But the real problem, apart from the despair and the worry of the people about the safety of their relations-whether they had drowned ог whether they were suffering in Vietnam in re-education camps, or whatever-was the question of space. It was not so bad for the babes in arms, of whom there were a few, or the older people, who possessed that valuable Buddhist stoicism, whether or not they were in fact Buddhists: many of them were in fact Roman Catholic. Many of the older people, some of whom spoke French or English, said to us, It is worth under- going any hardships because we are free; that is the important thing". The really poignant thing was seeing the plight of
66
Refugee Problem
1368
the children of school age and of the teenagers, who had no space whatsoever- healthy young people-in which to kick a football, to roll a hoop or even fly a kite, which is a popular pastime in that part of the world. It was really tragic to see young lives being wasted away like this month after month, year after year, with nowhere for them to expend their energies.
In addition, there was the problem of the locals gawking at the refugees. The locals were not totally hostile, but they were certainly not friendly, either. I am not sure that it was a question of envy, as the noble Lord, Lord Elton, implied was the case in the camp that he visited, because Songkhla is a fishing port and there is enough to eat; but ethnically and culturally the Southern Thais are very different from the Vietnamese. They are very much darker and their form of Buddhism is quite different from the Vietnamese form of Buddhism; and, as I said earlier, many of the Vietnamese are Roman Catholics, anyway. They would stand round the wire all day, gazing and pointing at the people inside, staring at them like monkeys in a zoo, and for a dignified people this must have been a most upsetting experience. I had of course read about refugee camps
in various parts of the world, and had seen them on television, but until one actually visits one in person one cannot conceive of the atmosphere of despair that pervades them.
My Lords, what about the implications for our foreign policy?
Lord ELTON: My Lords, if the noble Lord would be kind enough to allow me to interrupt, I wanted to put a gloss on what he said about conditions at Songkhla, which I have not visited. I wish to do nothing to detract from the impression he has given, but it is the case that since I was in Aranya Prathet just over a year ago the Thai Government have under- taken the education of children inside the camps; and, in fact, the policy which was introduced on 2nd November 1977, of not allowing anybody outside the camp for any purpose, has been relaxed, think we should not underestimate what the Thais are doing; and they do in fact pay for just over half the cost of every refugee every day, every year they are there.
I