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233. During 1970 a total of 26,297 refugees and displaced persons, of whom 5,749 were boat cases, departed for resettlement in third countries. This was the highest number to leave in one year since the programme began and represented an 88 per cent increase over the numbers leaving during 1977. Assistance was provided by ICEM which organized transportation to the countries of permanent resettlement.
234. Expenditures under UNHCR's Special Programme in Thailand totalled approximately $15,372,800 of which some $10.5 million were provided for care and maintenance and about $4 million for assistance towards resettlement. An amount of $45,000 administered by the Relief and Welfare Committee (RUC) provided emergency accommodation in Bankok for cases awaiting resettlement who could not be placed in the transit centres. Under the General Programmes $4,355 were expended to provide supplementary aid to destitute refugees living or in transit in the region and who could not receive such aid from any other source.
Viet Nam
235. Assistance projects for displaced groups were continued and some completed in the most affected provinces, such as Nghe Tinh, Bin Tri Dien, Dang Noi, Song Be and Tay Ninh. An amount of $905,481 was expended in 1978 from contributions to the Special Programme for displaced persons within Viet Nam. UNHCR's activities in this connection were essentially a consolidation of earlier efforts in the fields of agriculture and animal husbandry, fishery and health.
236. Additional farm machinery and irrigation pumps were procured to supplement equipment that had already been provided in previous years. The implementation of two previously established projects - a poultry far and a pilot buffalo-breeding farm continued during 1978. While the poultry farm project reached the final stage of implementation at the end of 1970, further deliveries for the buffalo-breeding farm are expected to take place in 1979. Aid in the field of fishery continued during. 1978 with the repair of several damaged wharves and berthing facilities, as well as for the installation of cold-storage facilities for the conservation of the catch, and vehicles for its transportation.
237. In the health sector $590,000 were obligated to cover requirements for projects already established in previous years under which UNHCR is contributing towards the construction and equipment of 16 district hospitals. The national authorities have provided the land and cover the costs of construction, administration and inland transportation, whereas UNICR supplies construction material that is not available locally, as well as basic surgical and other medical equipment. By the end of 1978, six hospitals were fully operational and a further three were expected to be completed early in 1979.
230. In April 1978 the Vietnamese authorities requested UNHCR to provide assistance to the refugees from Democratic Kampuchea, whose number was estimated to be about 150,000 at the end of the year. WFP and UNHCR undertook a joint mission in May to the provinces receiving them, and UMICR allocated an amount of $300,000 from the Emergency Fund to cover inmediate needs. An appropriation of $450,000 was also approved for these refugees within the 1973 General Programmes and used for the purchase of medicaments, clothing, mosquito nets and rice. In addition, a donation in kind of $50,065 was made available by a trust fund contribution for the benefit of those refugees living in areas affected by floods.
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