Twenty-fifth Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference
7
political upheavals, particularly since the second world war, posed serious problems to mankind.
The refugee problem had been found to involve 80 countries, many of which did not come the influx of large waves of refugees. However, many governments and international bodies had responded to the problem by establishing agencies and formulating guidelines; and the United Nations Organisation, in conjunction with various governments, had initiated international and regional conventions and agreements codifying the rights and obligations of refugees.
The refugee problem was at its most acute in Africa, South-east Asia, and India. The leaders of the Commonwealth governments nailed their collective flag firmly to the mast of social and economic justice in Jamaica in 1975, said a New Zealand delegate. Now, four years later, they did not seem to have made much progress. How could they expect to make economic progress if, as a group, they could not face up to the colossal problem of human suffering represented by the refugee problem? They must concern themselves with the key points: an accelerated programme for international resettlement of refugees who could never return home; helping the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to set up processing stations within Vietnam; facilitating the delivery of international relief supplies, especially into Kampuchea; stressing the necessity-and this was critical-for a United Nations supervision team on the Thai border.
They were undoubtedly witnessing one of the world's greatest tragedies in South-east Asia, said a Maltese delegate. If Vietnam had not invaded Cambodia, that refugee problem would not exist. The first step towards a solution, therefore, was to call on Vietnam to retreat to its borders and to refrain from further aggression. Otherwise, what purpose would it serve to resettle the present refugees while tens of thousands more refugees continued to overlap into Thailand and Malaysia? Meanwhile, urgent help had to be given to Thailand to act as a decent transit camp. If the world failed to help starving, homeless people it would indeed be a cold world.
The leader of the Singapore delegation said short-term solutions were necessary but long-term measures to eliminate the mass of human suffering among refugees had to be found. At a conference in Geneva in May, Vietnam had voluntarily agreed to a 6 months' moratorium on the sending of refugees across its borders. The refugee outflow had then declined dramatically, but the 6 months were up, the north-east monsoon had started, and a possible million and a half refugees could flow into the Chinese Peninsula alone. He thought it would be beyond even the capacity of New Zealand, with so much of its land lying vacant, to deal with such an outflow.
The whole problem was at the surface of a subtle campaign by big powers to subvert various parts of the world and he hoped the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association could bring attention to bear on that at the wider forum of the United Nations.
Australia was meeting its obligations in the most useful way. Per head of population, it had accepted the second largest number of refugees from South-east Asia, Hong Kong having taken the most. It had contributed $7,300,000 to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees and had announced a further contribution of $1,200,000, in addition to cash grants of $1,000,000 each to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, and $300,000 to the Philippines.
With its background of partition, and its responsibility for refugees of Indian origin forced out of other countries, India had great sympathy for the worldwide refugee problems, and sought a consensus solution from the conference.
A delegate from Papua New Guinea said his country would give financial assistance for refugees but its Government would not accept large numbers of them for resettlement. Its attitude could change if large numbers started to pour in unexpectedly. The Papua New Guinea Government must now draw up a definite policy to deal with refugees should the need arise.
Whatever Commonwealth countries were doing was not enough, because of the size of the problem, said a delegate from the United Kingdom. He paid a tribute to Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore for what they were doing, particularly to Hong Kong for its