CONFIDENTIAL
ESR He
want to get away (but not all of whom would be likely to manage to do so). The Vietnamese Government seem likely
to continue charging a tax (payable in gold) for those who
want to leave. An overall figure of 100,000 leaving
annually over the next few years might well prove a
realistic guess.
SOLUTIONS
17. The UNHCR has traditionally sought solutions to
refugee problems by a combination of measures.
These are:
(i) voluntary repatriation (few of the refugees
in South-East Asia wish to return to their
homelands or have any reasonable prospect
of doing so in the foreseeable future);
(ii) local integration (the countries of first
asylum are reluctant to allow many to
settle permanently for a variety of reasons,
not least of which is that this might
encourage an even greater outflow from
Vietnam);
(iii) resettlement (the number of resettlement
places for South-East Asian refugees has,
unfortunately, not kept pace with the
requirement for these).
Although the High Commissioner has had commendable success
in resettling tens of thousands of refugees from the region
it is clear that the traditional solutions are not so far
proving enough.
18 A proposal (originally put forward by the Malaysians)
/is
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