Over the past several years, more than 50,000 Vietnamese refugees have been rescued by merchant vessels operating in the South China Sea. The majority of the refugees have been disembarked at the next scheduled port of call at relatively little inconvenience to shipmasters and shipowners. A number of vessels have, however, experienced delays. These guidelines seek to provide a summary of procedures which, if followed, will help to reduce any disembarkation delays to a minimum.
WHAT ARE THE PROCEDURES?
All countries in South-East Asia require assurances that Vietnamese refugees *rescued at sea by passing ships will be disembarked on a temporary basis only and that they will eventually be resettled elsewhere, usually within a period of 90 days.
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When a vessel picks up refugees at sea, she will normally proceed to the first scheduled port of call, informing the ship's agent by radio of the number of refugees the vessel has on board and the circum- stances of their rescue.
The ship's agent will in turn inform the port and immigration author- ities of the presence of refugees on board, requesting permission for the ship to enter the harbour. The ship's agent should also inform the local UNHCR office and the Embassy of the country whose flag the ship is flying.
Should the vessel be flying the flag of a country in a position to resettle refugees, the Embassy of that country will inform the local authorities of its Government's willingness to accept the refugees for resettlement, normally within 90 days of their disembarkation.
If the vessel flies a flag of open registry, or a flag of a country which cannot reasonably be expected to accept refugees for resettlement, UNHCR will contact countries which have contributed to a special pool of resettlement places known as Disembarkation Resettlement Offers (DISERO) to provide disembarkation guarantees and share responsibility for subsequent resettlement.
Once the guarantee has been conveyed in writing from the relevant embassy or embassies to the local authorities, immigration and UNHCR officials will board the vessel to interview the refugees. Upon completion of the interviews, the refugees will be allowed to disembark.
Upon disembarkation, each refugee is examined by the local health authorities and given medical assistance as necessary. UNHCR covers all care and maintenance expenses.
UNHCR officials then interview each refugee family to obtain all relevant biographical details and ascertain whether a family has any relatives or close links in another country. If such links are found to exist, UNHCR contacts the Embassy of that country and applies for that family's resettlement. It is estimated that some thirty percent of those originally guaranteed by the flag state or under DISERO are eventually resettled in other countries on the basis of family reunion or other close links.
UNHCR/Gaugler