RESETTLEMENT OF REFUGEES FROM INDOCHINA
1.
The problem of refugees from the Indochina peninsula in neighbouring countries has now reached levels which must be seen as critically out of proportion to the solutions currently available to meet the needs.
2. In June 1978 there were some 125,000 refugees in South East Asia, for whom durable solutions were required. The number today is over 300,000.
3.
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The international community made a serious effort to meet this emergency by providing resettlement to some 185,000 Indochinese puduris from mid-1975 to 31.5.79. In the last seven months, in fac the effunt, mounted resulted in an increase of resettlerent opportunities govori:r a one-year span from 53,500 to 125,000. The situation, however, has deteriorated as the refugee influx escalated, rendering this impressive effort inadequate. The imbalance is evident; against a refuge population of some 300,000 persons awaiting durable solutions mainly in camps in South East Asia, there are offers of resettlement for only 42% of the present caseload over a one-year period, and the influx continues.
4. The UNHCR has been deeply concerned by the dramatic developments in the area, and has kept the international community informed of the gravity of the situation. The UN Secretary General, who visited South East Asia earlier this year, appealed on 24 May 1979 to 52 governments to offer more resettlement opportunities and increased financial contribu- tions to meet this crisis. It is now clear that the alarming increase in the rate of arrivals calls for more than a doubling of the resettlement effort and a global attack on the problem. On the assumption that a sizeable number of the caseload would be absorbed in other regions, it is to be hoped that the countries of Asia would also be prepared to absume responsibility for a reasonable share of the caseload. A plan of action has been developed by UNHCR in an effort to respond to the emergency, the basis of which countries believed capable of absorbing refurges are individually requested to accept an indicative number of Idoskinope refugees in order to deal with the present caseload.
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