2ND PLENARY SESSION
THE REFUGEE PROBLEM
H
on. Leo Moggie, MP, Minister for Energy, Telecommunication and Post, Malaysia, outlined the plight of the tens of thousands of Vietnamese boat people who had landed as illegal immigrants in Malaysia and other ASEAN countries, and of the Kampuchean refugees in Thailand, and indicated the problems of the countries that had given them asylum. He summarised the action necessary to bring about a solution of the difficulties: a continuing acceleration of the international programme for the permanent resettlement of the boat people; the establishment of processing centres in Vietnam by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, as accepted by the Geneva conference in July; an intensification of international relief efforts for the refugees in Thailand; continued observation of the Thai-Kampuchean border by a United Nations observer team to pre-empt the spillover of the Kampuchean conflict into Thailand; the facilitating of the distribution of international relief supplies to starving people in Kampuchea; the maintenance of communication links with Vietnam.
Sri Lanka's view was that the refugee problem existed only in Third World countries, and its basic causes were the denial of the fundamental rights of human beings, the socio- economic factors in the countries concerned, racial prejudice, and the oppression of a minority group by a majority group. International solidarity was the only framework for the sincere exercise of international protective functions to solve the problem, allied with the work of the United Nations, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the many voluntary organisations that had offered help.
The Cyprus delegate discussed the problems of displaced persons-refugees in their own country-who were the victims of an aggressor nation seeking to change the demographic character of their country. The importation of Turkish nationals into Cyprus cities had changed their social, economic, and traditional character. The care and rehabilitation of displaced persons had become the first priority of Cypriots, and help had been given by many countries through the United Nations. Care and rehabilitation, however, were not sufficient; the problem could be solved only by the withdrawal of Turkish nationals from Cyprus.
The United Kingdom had given considerable aid to international refugee agencies, and had assisted Hong Kong, in particular, by taking thousands of its Vietnamese refugees. The Geneva conference, which had first been suggested by the British Prime Minister, had established the principles that no country had the right to force on to other countries sectors of its own population that it did not wish to retain within its borders, and that it was not considered acceptable that a country should create conditions that were so intolerable to many of its citizens as to drive them away. Peaceful solutions to the problems of troubled countries were essential, and delegates should dedicate their political skills to solving the underlying causes of the problems.
Since the second world war, Canada had accepted, and integrated largely harmoniously, some 300,000 displaced people. Its resettlement policy recognised that there would always be more refugees than it could accept, but it had made a major commitment to the resettlement of South-east Asian refugees and a contribution of $15 million to the emergency food programme for Kampuchea. It agreed that a peaceful solution to the problems of troubled countries was necessary.
The highest concentration of boat refugees in South-east Asia was in Hong Kong, said its delegate. There were exactly 59,914 refugees waiting in its camps for settlement. When he asked such people why they left home the universal answer was persecution.
Hong Kong, of course, did not welcome such refugees, but saw their need after their 2,000-mile journeys over perilous seas. Hong Kong had not turned away a single boatload of people by force or in any other way. Yet its population of 5,000,000 lived in an area of only about 400 square miles. By spending US$40 million they had given the refugees comfort, and 20,000 refugees had found employment, but his country could not settle them all. It had already taken 14,000 refugees from Vietnam.
The delegate from West Bengal stressed that the human problems associated with the upkeep and rehabilitation of the millions of people who had been uprooted as a result of