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taking longer to consider cases. Since the end of August noone who had applied for settlement in Norway had been approved. 1,200 persons under family reunion caseload had been accepted by Norway but were still awaiting exit permits: some had been waiting for several years. Norway called for a speeding up of administrative procedures and for an increase in the number of exit permits.
French ODP
14. France had had a bilateral programme before ODP had been set up and 35,000 persons had arrived in France since 1975. The French Government were committed to ODP. The Vietnamese Minister's statement was correct: some candidates for the French ODP had had exit visas for some time and France would like to examine this problem with the Vietnamese delegation.
Australian ODP
15. Australia saw the ODP in the regional context, as an alternative mechanism to illegal departures by boat and as a step to the eventual solving of the Vietnamese problem. Voluntary repatriation was also part of this question.
16. Australia did not take part in the ODP programme but had a separate bilateral family migration programme arrangement since 1982. Over the last year the smooth operation of this programe had been disrupted and Australia hoped that all outstanding matters could be resolved over the next few months. An Australian delegation to Vietnam had recently discussed this and the two sides would resume talks at a later date.
Belgian ODP
17. 145 Vietnamese family reunion cases had been settled in Belgium in 1985 and 70 so far in 1986. There were 400 people in Vietnam who had Belgian entry visas and were waiting for exit visas, over half of whom had been waiting for over five years. The Belgian Ambassador in Hanoi had given a list to Vietnam of these people.
18. Italy and Ireland spoke in similar terms.
Intergovernmental Committee for Migration (ICM)
19. ICM supplied the logistics and medical services to people leaving Vietnam under the ODP. For the last 18 months ICM had been cooperating with the Vietnamese medical authorities and staff in Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City to
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