Refugee
Bulletin
7
thi
Mr. McQuade Hope to
This year's low figures for Thailand during
·PA HUU 243/4
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United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Regional Office for Western South Asia
be an encouraging UN Building. Rajdamnern Ave..
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gets under Tom Smith 5/5
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Bangkok. Tel. 2829161
15 April 1983
REFUGEE ARRIVALS, PIRACY ATTACKS DOWN IN MARCH
Refugee arrival figures for Thailand, usually high during March, were lower last month than in any previous March since the beginning of the Indochinese
fugee crisis. Altogether there were 781 arrivals for the month, including 404 boat people from Vietnam and 377 persons from Laos. Of the land arrivals, 138 were lowland Lao and 239 were hill tribe people.
The total of 781 persons arriving was less than half of the number (1,715) who came in March of last year. Prior to 1982, March arrival figures were: 1981: 5,366 (3,712 land,(2,311 boat 1980:
1980: 3,325 (1,057 land,2,268) boat); 1979: 6,644 (6,024 land, 620 boat); 1978: 1,697 (1,323 land, 374 boat); 1977: 2,435 (2,113 land, 322 boat); & 1976: 3,186 (3,166 land, 20 boat).
It was not apparent why the arrivals were low. Weather is ordinarily an important factor, particularly in boat arrivals, during the year. Fewer refugees arrive during the height of the monsoon. Last year for example, in August only two refugees arrived in Thailand by boat. March through June, on the other hand, normally have high numbers of boat arrivals. The highest single month for boat arrivals in Thailand was April of 1981 (3,273).
One possible explanation for the lower boat arrivals could be the high number of orderly departures from Vietnam. During March 1,336 Vietnamese left their country under the Orderly Departure Programme. This was an increase over the levels for January (811) and February (767). The 1982 total for orderly departures was 10,047 Vietnamese, plus 1,100 Kampucheans who had earlier sought asylum in Vietnam.
Meanwhile March was a record low month for another phenomenon: piracy attacks on boats arriving in Thailand. For the first time since statistics have been kept, there were no murders, abductions or rapes reported by arriving refugees. This is very welcome news. During March the percentage of arriving boat attacked by pirates (five out of 16 or 31 percent) was also an all-time low figure.
There have been months with fewer arriving boat people, yet worse piracy incidents, so the decreased arrival numbers do not necessarily account for the drop. Since July of last year the Royal Thai Government has been implementing an anti-piracy programme using boats and planes based in Songkhla. Twelve donor governments contributed US$ 3.5 million for the one-year effort.
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Encowaging
news
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RECEIVED IN REGISTRY 05MAY 1993
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