Item 2.
INTRODUCTION
A.
The Briefing Notes that were distributed before this meeting, and later in a slightly revised form, contain information and recommendations concerning resettlement needs where we believe resettlement countries agree with us that more attention can and should be given. In the Paper we do not describe the over-all situation nor do we address all existing needs for resettlement. Therefore, I would like to make a brief over-view of how we see the situation around the world.
B.
I think you all agree with me that the highest resettlement priority must be given to emergency cases. There is a constant need to find resettlement offers for refugees in situations where their lives are in danger. Fortunately, some countries have been able to offer solutions in such emergency situations and I only wish to mention that we would like to see some additional countries becoming available for resettlement as until now practically all emergency cases have been taken care of by just three or four countries.
C.
Another constant high priority for resettlement are disabled and medically-at-risk refugees who cannot be taken care of locally. There are ample details in our Briefing Paper so I do not wish to elaborate further during this Introduction.
D. In many parts of the world there are individual refugees or sometimes entire ethnic or national groups of refugees who are not permitted to stay in their first country of asylum or residence.
The situations where individuals need to be resettled occur in many countries also including comtries which have welcomed and provided asylum to large mumbers of other refugees. UNHCR tries as far as possible to find regional solutions but sometimes has no other choice than to look for extra-regional resettlement.
A much more heavy burden on resettlement countries is created when entire groups of refugees are not allowed to stay in first asylum countries. The Indochinese in South East Asia is the most obvious and challenging example. In the Briefing Paper we have stressed some priorities concerning the Vietnamese refugees but we must not forget other groups, such as the 27,000 Kampuchean refugees in the Khao-I-Dang camp in Thailand or the continued presence of Laotian refugees requesting resettlement and by their presence among others less inclined to seek resettlement, acting as an effective force against any successful repatriation.
Several countries, where asylum-seekers from Iran are arriving or where Iranians have become refugees sur-place, have found it impossible to offer