NOTE ON TECHNICAL MEETING ON RESETTLEMENT
held at UNHCR Headquarters, Geneva, on Monday 23 July 1979 at 10 a.m.
INTRODUCTION
1.
Following the Meeting on Refugees and Displaced Persons in South East Asia, convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 20 and 21 July 1979, the High Commissioner invited representatives of countries having announced new or ongoing resettlement programmes for Indo-Chinese to attend a technical meeting at the Centre William Rappard on Monday 23 July 1979. Attached as Annex I is a list of participants.
2. In welcoming participants to the meeting, the Deputy High Commissioner thanked Governments for their resettlement offers for the existing caseload of refugees in South East Asia and for their commitments in respect of the future. Some 260,000 resettlement places were currently available in almost thirty countries, and it was the High Commissioner's objective to move the maximum
He number of persons out of South East Asia in the shortest possible time. mentioned a target of 250,000 persons to be moved from refugee camps in six months. He said that the existing caseload amounted to approximately 400,000 persons, consisting primarily of land and boat cases in the ASEAN countries and Hong Kong, but also of several thousand persons from Democratic Kampuchea in Viet Nam and of a further several thousand family reunion cases and others who had gone to China. He expressed the view that if the bulk of the existing caseload could be moved out it might be possible to envisage a limited programme of local settlement in the countries of the area. He hoped that it would prove possible to move up to 1,000 persons daily, double the rate achieved in June 1979; He agreed that this rate of resettlement would not achieve the target of 250,000 in six months and that, to relieve the burden on countries of first asylum to this extent, some intermediate, lateral movement of refugees might be necessary. It was a daunting challenge, the Deputy High Commissioner said, but the capacity existed and with the oo-operation of Governments the challenge could be met.
3. The Office of UNHCR, having a role to ensure that there is fair treatment of all groups of refugees, encouraged close consultation and co-ordination between resettlement countries and UNHCR's Headquarters and/or field offices. The first priority had always to be cases where life was endangered; in such circumstances, an immediate response was needed and indeed there had been. examples of such ready responses in recent weeks. Cases of family reunion - where such family reunion did not fall within normal immigration criteria - were obviously a high priority also. Furthermore, the Office looked to
the resettlement countries to keep in mind the needs of "sensitive groups" unaccompanied minors, the handicapped, those who had been longest in the camps. An important priority were the "land cases" in Thailand, who represented half the caseload of Indo-Chinese refugees and displaced persons and who should, therefore, receive half the offers of resettlement available.
A