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refugees picked up by vessels registered in the United Kingdom would be accepted for resettlement in Britain if no other country had accepted them within 90 days of the rescue. Over 3,000 boat people have been admitted for settlement in Britain on this basis.
On 1 May 1985, the UNHCR inaugurated a scheme known as Rescue at
Sea Resettlement Offers (RASRO). Its purpose was to encourage
ship rescues of boat people the rate having declined drastically
by 1984 - and to spread the flow of refugees more evenly between
the most suitable resettlement countries ensuring, wherever possible, that they went to countries where they had family links. Fifteen Western countries agreed to participate in the scheme and
pledged over 2,000 resettlement places, including a quota of 150
for Britain during the first year of the scheme. As a further
inducement to sea captains, the UNHCR has introduced a scheme to
reimburse expenditure accruing to ship owners as a direct result
of rescues at sea. In 1985 the number of boat people rescued at
sea increased to 2,818 compared with 2,172 in the previous year;
78 vessels were involved.
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In response to international concern, a fund was established
in 1982 under the auspices of the UNHCR to support the Thai Navy's operations against pirates preying on refugee boats in the Gulf of
Thailand. Twelve countries have contributed over US$4 million. In February 1986 a team of experts from Britain, Japan and America
produced a report on the effectiveness of the Thai Navy's
anti-piracy programme. The report concluded that it was
improving, albeit gradually, and that material resources now
available were sufficient for the purpose.
Nevertheless, the incidence of piracy is still distressingly
high. In the first five months of 1986, 42 per cent of refugee
boats in the southern waters of the Gulf of Thailand were attacked by pirates (as against 59 per cent for the whole of 1985).
Britain's concern; the SCORRI report
Indochinese
More than 19,000 Vietnamese refugees have been resettled in
Britain, including those leaving Vietnam under the ODP. Because of cultural and language offerences, the United Kingdom is not the
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