11
G
The Vietnamese Government recently announced that it
will permit its citizens to depart the country legally for
family reunification or to "take employment abroad." Under
this proposal, up to 10,000 people per month would be allowed
to leave with UNHCR assistance provided their names match those
on lists submitted by other governments. To the extent that
such a plan would alleviate the human suffering of potential
refugees and the burdens now imposed on other countries in
its absence, it would be welcome. However, it would not solve the
problem of those already in refugee camps, who must receive our
immediate attention. Nor is it likely to stem the tide of
people who are willing to risk the sea on their own rather
than test the sincerity of the Vietnamese Government.
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We are prepared to accept family reunification cases directly
from Vietnam but we wish to review carefully the results of
the recent UNHCR mission to Hanoi before making any definitive
decision on how to proceed. We remain committed as a first
priority to taking refugees from the countries of first
asylum. To sum up on refugees, we believe that the essential
reason for the refugee flow so dangerous to refugees and so
upsetting to other countries, is the Vietnamese Government's
➤ own internal policies, its disregard for human rights
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and its responsibilities to its people under the UN Charter.
We hope that the international community will make clear to
the Vietnamese that it expects the SRV to meet its obligations
:
to apply humane policies to its own people rather than