CONFIDENTIAL
ESSENTIAL FACTS
1
Thailand continues to shoulder most of the S E Asian refugee
burden: nearly 140,000 Laotians, Khmers, and Vietnamese boat and
land people as well as 225,000 Khmers who have fled to the Thai-
Cambodian border. Boat-people up to September totalled 22,000
(against 42,000 for all 1982) with a higher proportion going to
Malaysia rather than Hong Kong. Vietnam is keen to curb the exodus
but still regards them as traitors; and repatriations will be limited:
Hanoi will not accept their forcible return as a group (assuming this
could be contemplated) and few individuals would want to return
though more special cases could be encouraged to consider it.
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2 UNHCR had hoped to arrange more than 2,000 voluntary returns to
Laos this year but Vientiane suspended the operation in the summer
perhaps because resources were limited or because of internal security
problems. American views would be useful.
3 Thai pirates' attacks on Vietnamese boat-people in the Gulf of Siam
have declined this year though the $3.6m UNHCR/Thai navy anti-piracy
programme has led to few arrests and no convictions. It has been
renewed for a year, but with an experts' report recommending substantial
rationalisation of the Thai navy's effort, which we hope the Thais
will accept.
4
Repatriations to Cambodia are in baulk because Phnom Penh insists
on the Thais dealing with PRK officially. Presumably ASEAN's ''Appeal
for Cambodian Independence', launched in September, could lead to the return of many refugees to liberated areas of western Cambodia, but
there is no evidence that Hanoi will consider the proposal seriously
(though they have not yet rejected it). UNBRO, which cares for 225,000
Khmers in border areas and 60,000 Cambodian refugees at Khao-I-Dang is
becoming very expensive, $35m pa, and will need more funding after next summer (we pledged a further £200,000 on 16 September but the US and
Japan are major supporters). We share US concern that the UN
Secretariat may be moving to downgrade the relief coordinator, Sir
Robert Jackson's, post which will damage funding prospects. Eastern bloc
accuse the donors' committee of supplying PRK's opponents. But the
Secretary General's special representative is also the only one who can monitor emergency requirements inside Cambodia.
CONFIDENTIAL
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