!
2
turned away. But, almost alone in the region, and at the original
request of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, refugees
have been accommodated in camps without restrictions and thus been
able to work.
5.
Resettlement has proceeded apace and refugees have been found
places in 30 countries. But by 1981 the number of resettlement
countries had fallen to 20 with the US resettlement programme easily
the largest, but with Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and
Germany having accepted quite large numbers.
By the turn of the
the highest refugee
year our refugee population was about 12,000
population of boat people in the region - and this notwithstanding
our record and the density of our own population.
!
5.
Unhappily, these resettlement programmes are now slowing down.
The United Kingdom quota is exhausted with no prospect of a further
one. The Australian Government has adopted more restrictive criteria
and the Canadian quota has also been reduced. The United States,
which has up till now been responsible for resettling on average 60%
of refugees from Hong Kong, but more recently up to 80%,has reduced
its quota and, more importantly, at the same time tightened the
criteria governing eligibility for resettlement.
The UNHCR's attempts
to find more resettlement places in these and other countries have
met with little success and so our refugee population is starting to
rise again. Today it is 10,800.
/para 7.