DSR 11C
CONFIDENTIAL
Vietnam and the Office of the UNHCR, under which Vietnam
undertook to allow asylum-seekers to leave in a regulated
manner rather than feleing illegally in boats (the
"Orderly Departure Programme").
Liz
which
2.
The countries and territories into which these
Indochinese have sought asylum have faced social,
Restricted
political and economic difficulty in accepting people of
very different race, culture and language. Years spent
under alien political indoctrination have also given
cause for suspicion on security grounds.
availability of land and competition for employment in
still-developing economies have compounded the problems
posed. The 1979 Geneva Conference agreed that the
countries and territories of first asylum in the region
should not be expected to bear either the costs of the
influx or the burdens of settlement of the migrants.
Promises of funds and of resettlement places were made,
mostly by the US and other developed countries.
Continued domestic political and economic pressures on
Indochina coupled with the perceived availability of
formal procedures leading to ultimate resettlement
abroad, particularly in the developed West, have
continued to stimulate departures, illegal and legal, at
a rate of about 50,000 a year.
3. Three solutions to the problems posed by this exodus
have so far been adopted:
(i) Integration in the place of first asylum. This is
CONFIDENTIAL