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L
UTILIZATION OF CURRENT RESETTLEMENT OFFERS
4.
The Deputy High Commissioner invited participants to indicate how the countries they represented expected to allocate their numbers as between land and boat arrivals, and what timetable of admissions was foreseen.
5. Mr. Shep Lowman, United States Department of State, said that the United States expected to begin moving 14,000 persons to the United States in July and to hold to that number through September 1980 at least, the end of the fiscal year. At the same time, the United States would be in a position to process a second stream of refugees to provide necessary guarantees to send some 10,000 15,000 per month to a processing centre.
6.
Mr. Maurizio Moreno of the Permanent Mission of Italy said that most of the 1,000 persons to be admitted to Italy were expected to be rescued at sea by warships his Government had recently sent to Singapore. It was intended to. resettle those rescued as well as those selected in Malaysia and Thailand by the end of August 1979. Of these, it was intended that some 150 persons should 'be "land people". The Government of Italy could not make commitments beyond August, but hoped to be in a position to make a further contribution to resettlement needs in the coming months.
7.
Mr. Bruce Gillies of the Permanent Mission of Canada said that, whereas 50,000 Indo-Chinese would be admitted to the end of 1980, specific plans had been worked out for a six-month period only. It was expected that 15,000 Indo-Chinese would move to Canada, of whom 8,850 would be "boat people", 5,850 from Malaysia and Indonesia and 3,000 from Hong Kong, and 6,050 land arrivals from Thailand. Movement would be at the rate of 3,000 per month.
8. Mr. Keith MacInnes, of the United Kingdom Permanent Mission, referred to the large caseload of some 66,000 "boat people" in Hong Kong about which the British Government was most concerned. The Hong Kong authorities stood ready to help in any way possible in the co-ordination of resettlement efforts for this group.
The new British quota of 10,000 was earmarked for the Hong Kong
caseload.
9. H.E. Mr. Stéphane Hessel, Permanent Representative of France, said that France decided in June to accelerate admissions, and offered an emergency quota of 5,000, which would be followed as soon as reception facilities were free by another quota of 5,000, say in September. Some 2,000 persons from the first of these quotas had just arrived in France and the remaining 3,000 were expected to arrive immediately. France would continue in 1980 to receive Indo-Chinese for resettlement, and hoped to be in a position to take some of the most urgent
The Government was ready to be guided by UNHCR over priorities, and was prepared to take as many "boat people" as "land people", and if necessary to take refugees from a wider area of South East Asia.
cases.
10. Mrs. Ruth Raeli, Permanent Mission of Israel, stated that Israel expected to receive immediately the 200 persons to be selected under the new quota. There were 53 persons in camps in Indonesia who had applied to join family resettled in Israel; the remainder would be admitted from Thailand and the Philippines, and UNHCR's suggestions were invited with regard to selection and travel arrangements. Mrs. Raeli said furthermore that her Government was ready to put at UNHCR's disposal a person having expertise in the resettlement field for a period of three months to assist with resettlement processing in South East Asia.