-2-
3.
The conference resulted in a massive increase in offers of
resettlement places, from 125,000 to 260,000 and in new pledges of
additional financial support for the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees' activities amounting to US$190 million. The Vietnamese
Government indicated that it would suspend for a time the export of
boat people, the first time that this Government has acknowledged
&
even implicitly that it controls this wicked traffic, and will discuss
measures for the safe and orderly departure of those of its citizens
who wish to leave. The conference also demonstrated the strength of
international concern about Cambodia, the need for a political
the even more urgent need
settlement in that strife-torn country and the
for food aid to its starving people.
4.
There was also widespread affirmation of several vital
humanitarian principles repeated in Dr Waldheim's summing-up: the
basic right of individuals to stay in their own country or leave as
a matter of free will; that when they leave they must have orderly
arrangements for departure; a safe journey and an assured destination;
that the principle of first asylum must be respected by the countries
to which refugees now flee; and that the international community
must work together for their resettlement. In their respect for
human values these are vital principles.
5. None of this would have happened if there had not been a
And the conference would not have taken place if Britain
conference.
had not proposed it. We commend Dr Waldheim and the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees for bringing it about in a matter of weeks.
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16.