Caritas Japan Osaka Office P. Raimund Zinnecker OFM
Memorandum about the possibility of settlement of Vietnamese refugees in San Rafael béi Encarnacion, Paraguay
I. Previous history
Caritas Japan has since 1975 been looking after several thousand refugees who have been driven out of their home-lands which have now became communist and travelled to Japan. Since the Japanese Government only grants temporary asylum we arrange for them to go to other countries. With the help of the church in Paraguay 60 hectares of land was bought for four vietnamese families The Japanese Territory of Iguasu, which Caritas Japan paid for and in the first instance put in the name of Bishop for Pto, Stroessner to hand over to the new settlers at a later date. Meanwhile the vietnamese settlers have co-operated well with the Japanese in Igvasu to achieve a working relationship. Their children go to the local schools and they have adapted to the local conditions.
In 1977 a further group of young vietnamese refugees went to Iguasu. Unfortunately they became disillusioned with a life of agriculture and returned to the city.
Father Aurelio Villa OFM of Caritas Japan who accompanied both groups to Paraguay adstayed with them for a month during the initial difficulties has tried to obtain entry permits for further groups of refugees so far without success.
II The permanent need of the Indo-Chinese refugees in South East Asia
At the conference of Caritas in Asia held in Bangkok in July 1979, in which I also participated, the problem of the refugees was studied, and the decision was made to despatch within the near future 300,000 Indo Chinese refugees, living in disgraceful conditions, to settle in other lands through catholic institutions. It is a well-known fact (see the enclosed newspaper article from Bangkok) that today hundred of thousands of people live in permanent threat, either languishing in the immense camps or even of being sent back to their home-lands which have now become communist where they almost certainly would lose their lives.
When one considers the hopeless circumstances of these people it is one of the duties of the human race not only to give them temporary help but also to attempt to give them a new home-land.
III The possibility of settling the refugees in Paraguay
In January 1980 I received an offer from the provincial SVD in Paraguay who suggested the possibility of settling about 30 families in the grounds of the mission (A copy of the letter and a map is attached)
I send this news immediately to the appropriate representatives