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The Committee puts forward 15 recommendations to help the Vietnamese in Britain. It insists that "the Government's responsibility for them contimes and the Vietnamese.must continue for the time being to be treated as a special case". Not only the Home Office but Departments which have so far done little or nothing to assist the Vietnamese are urged to devote mare resources to these refugees.
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The BRC will be giving particular emphasis to the recommendations aimed at:
reducing the isolation of Vietnamese living in remote areas
relieving overcrowding and homelessness among those who have recently moved into the big cities
generating training and employment opportunities.
Specifically,
the SC should agree to fund skills training courses linked to English language tuition of sufficient length to lead to employment (para 61) and should immediately accept proposals along these lines which have already been submitted.
the DES should ensure funding end facilities for Vietnamese with professional qualifications to retrain in this country (para 66). There are doctors who have either left Britain or are sitting idly unemployed because they could not retrain.
The DHSS should support the work being done by Ockenden Venture in the field of mental health (para 86).
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Government Departments (and particularly the Health Services) must recognise the need to employ and train competent interpreters (para 64). A case where a child was asked to tell his father in Vietnamese that he was dying of cancer is not untypical of what happens now.
The Home Office should bring other Government Departments (particularly the Dept. of the Environment) and local authorities into a joint strategy to create community facilities in the main cities, to help those moving to the cities to obtain proper housing and ensure services to those wishing to remain in remoter areas (para e0).
The Home Office should provide additional funds to the programmes being carried out by BRC, Ockenden Venture and Refugee Action for the Vietnamese and guarantee