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POLICY EVALUATION: AID TO INDO-CHINESE REFUGEES IN THAILAND
Introduction
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1. For the 7 years July 1979 July 1986, the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) has provided from its assistance budget some £12.5m in contributions to the international relief effort for Indo-Chinese refugees and displaced persons in Thailand. This policy decision was taken in response to a human tragedy of gigantic proportions which also threatened to have a seriously destabilising effect on Thailand and other countries in South East Asia and which
directly affected Hong Kong. A British response was called for because of the UK's long-standing commitment to the principles of the UN, the public reaction nationally and internationally to the tragedy, and UK interests in preserving the stability of Hong Kong
and SE Asian countries affected.
Background
2.
Since the Communist take-overs in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in
The 1975, some 1.7m Indo-Chinese have fled those countries. atrocities of the Khmer Rouge who ruled Cambodia from 1975-1978, and the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in December 1978 greatly exacerbated the problem. The exodus reached its peak in 1978, when 200,000 refugees arrived in Thailand alone. Other South East Asian countries Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei were all faced with significant if smaller influxes. obligations to Hong Kong were directly engaged through the burden placed on Hong Kong as a place of first asylum for Vietnamese fleeing by boat.
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British
3. In response to this crisis, a conference was held in Geneva in 1979 at which the international community resolved that there should be a world-wide sharing of the burden, covering both resettlement and support within the region. At that conference, the UK pledged £5 million, together with resettlement places for 10,000 Indo-Chinese refugees.
4.
Since 1979, the UK, in common with other nations has maintained
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