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that certain conditions were met
one of them being the offer of guarantees of permanent resettlement by third countries. The Indonesian Foreign Minister has since made a firm offer of an island, Rempang (west of Bintan in the Riau archipelago), as a transit centre to hold 5-10,000 refugees, for whom offers of final resettlement places had already been confirmed. UNHCR is expected to study the viability of the proposal.
Following representations by a number of Western countries, a team of experts from the UNHCR, led by Deputy High Commissioner de Haan, visited Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong in February and March to assess the situation and to discuss and help seek solutions to the refugee problem.
Lord Goronwy-Roberts told Parliament on 19 February that the British Foreign Secretary, Dr Owen, had expressed deep concern to the Vietnamese Ambassador in London about reports of the organised traffic of refugees and about the human rights situation in Vietnam. The Vietnamese Government has said that it will cooperate with the UNHCR in taking measures to allow those Vietnamese who wish to do so to leave Vietnam in an orderly fashion. Deputy High Commissioner De Haan discussed this with the Vietnamese Government during his recent visit to Hanoi. Lord Goronwy-Roberts said that it remained to be seen whether the Vietnamese statement represented a genuine change of heart.
United Kingdom and other offers
The British Government has reminded masters of British ships of their obligation to pick up people in distress and has accepted ultimate responsi- bility for all refugees rescued by UK-registered ships if they cannot be resettled elsewhere. But Britain is unable to absorb large numbers of refugees because of her special commitments to accept families of Commonwealth immigrants and British passport-holders from East Africa. As a contribution to encouraging a wider international response to the problem, however, the British Government has agreed to admit 1,500 Vietnamese refugees in addition to the 1,108 already granted entry. Of the 1,500, 1,000 are to be drawn from Hong Kong and the remainder in equal proportions from Malaysia and Thailand. In 1978 Britain gave or offered nearly £7 million to the UNHCR for refugees throughout the world, including over £2 million for the UNHCR's special programme in South-East Asia.
The United States, which has already authorised entry for 25,000 Indochinese refugees since June 1978, has agreed to admit a further 21,875 in the near future. It plans to admit about 7,000 Indochinese refugees a month until September 1980. Altogether, the US has taken in more than 190,000 people from Indochina since April 1975. Under-Secretary of State David Newsom, speaking at the UNHCR meeting in Geneva, said that the US Government's readiness to give asylum to more people over the next year could depend on how generously the rest of the world granted them refuge.
The Australian Government has so far accepted some 16,000 Vietnamese for permanent resettlement and the figure is expected to rise to 21,500 by June 1979. A further 10,500 will be received between June 1979 and June 1980 according to a recent announcement, but this is a final offer; the government feels that other countries should make a greater contribution.