el refugees when those settled in the two countries were unable to have their
relatives join them. Vietnamese had not settled well in this country and the
Mr Waddington said that when he was in
arquette unemployment rate was still about 80%.
Hong Kong recently it had been clear to him that people there felt strongly that UNHCR should play a more active role in finding a durable solution to the problem. There was a widespread belief that many now arriving were economic immigrants rather than genuine refugees.
5. In discussion, Mr Hocke said that UNHCR had always been opposed to the closed camp policy. He could understand the argument that in the short-term the camps acted as a deterrent, but in his view they did not act as a deterrent in the medium and long-term. However, even if conditions in the open camp were not as good as those in the closed camps, the deprivation of freedom was unacceptable and made people from the camps very much harder to re-settle. Mr Hocke agreed that efforts should be made to reach a durable solution but did not indicate what role he thought UNHCR should play in that process.
Backlog of asylum applications and Detention
6. Mr Volfing said that he appreciated the pressures on the Home Office but he understood that there was now a backlog of some 6,000 cases and that on average it took about twelve months to reach a decison. Mr Waddington acknowledged that the situation was unsatisfactory and said that efforts to achieve improvements had been overtaken by other events. Officials were aware of the need to reduce the backlog and would be trying hard to do so. Mr Volfing also expressed concern about the number of asylum applicants who were detained. He was under the impression that about 80 to 90 applicants were detained. He asked that a new procedure be introduced to ensure that UNHCR was informed by the Home Office each time an asylum seeker was detained. It was confirmed that some of those detained had sought asylum while serving a prison sentence, but the total number involved was certainly not as high as 80 to 90. Mr Waddington gave no undertaking to adopt the procedure proposed by UNHCR and said that the first step was to investigate the numbers involved and the circumstances of their detention. The Home Office would then let Mr Wolfing know the outcome.
Ten or more plan
7. In a brief discussion, Mr Waddington confirmed that the Government supported the plan and would continue to examine cases on their merits. There had been a number of unsuitable cases put forward under the plan and their rejection did not reflect any withdrawal of support for the plan.