CODE 18-
CONFIDENTIAL
- 5-
Reference..................................................................................
reunion programme. The FRG had no problem with reciprocity.
24.
As far as voluntary repatriation was concerned, there were a number of Vietnamese in the FRG who wanted to return to Vietnam, but had so far had met with a negative answer from the Vietnamese authorities. (The FRG thought most of these people had been settled in the FRG under the ODP and not as third country resettlement cases.)
UNHCR Position
25. The US informed the meeting that the Vietnamese had, in their discussions with UNHCR, talked about a commitment to the ODP and about their concern relating to the backlog and "mercy ships". There had been no talk of running the programme down.
Summing Up
26. In summing up, the French agreed with the UK that the problem had been created by reducing the legal outflow because of the internal situation, so Vietnam had to bear responsibility for this. They agreed that there were political differences between the Vietnamese MFA and the Ministry of Interior and also between people in the Communist Party. The main problems for the receiving countries were those of reciprocity and capacity. The former does not affect countries who run only family reunion programmes. It did, however, affect the French and US programmes. The US programme had been roughly in balance until fairly recently and Congress was insisting that it must now be reciprocal.
27.
A further problem concerned the Khmer minority in Vietnam who the Vietnamese wished to have leave the country: the US had taken some of these people.
26. The final area of concern was the economic situation in Vietnam. The US in particular felt that if the backlog of 100,000 was cleared it would be fairly certain that the Vietnamese authorities would find another 100,000 for export under the ODP.
Waller
11 November 1986
DJ Walker (Miss)
CONFIDENTIAL