CONFIDENTIAL
Background
1. Since 1975, when the Communists took over South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, there has been an exodus of refugees (some 1.5 million) from Indo-China. Approximately half of these have been
Vietnamese, most of whom have left Vietnam by boat. Boat people heading westwards from Vietnam into the Gulf of Thailand have been
the prey of pirates, thought to be mainly Thai.
2.
To combat the scourge of pirate attacks, an Anti-Piracy
Programme was established in 1982. The programme is co-ordinated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and implemented by the Thai Navy and Police. The UK is one of 12 donor nations funding the programme. The others are USA, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, FRG, Norway, Japan, Netherlands, Italy, Denmark and France (now withdrawn).
3. There has been a continuing fall in the number of boat refugees arriving in the region (around 22,000 in 1985). But the scourge of piracy against boat people remains. According to UNHCR statistics, 63 of the 257 refugee boats which arrived in Thailand during 1985 were attacked by pirates, ie 25%. This percentage is still distressingly high, but is lower than previous years (1981: 77%;
1982: 65%; 1983: 53%; 1984: 36%). These statistics suggest that the anti-piracy programme has had some success in deterring piracy.
However, UNHCR statistics relating to south coast arrivals
(excluding oil rigs) are still particularly worrying, viz the percentage of boats attacked was as high as 73% in 1985 a small
increase over the 70% for 1984. Clearly there is still a lot of
room for improvement. Our representation joined others, eg West
Germany and Italy, at the 12 May donors' meeting, in expressing
concern at the continuing evidence of piracy, and the need for further improvements in the programme.
4. In January this year, UNHCR sent a
UNHCR sent a three-man assessment team to
Thailand, on behalf of donor governments, to assess the programme.
We were glad to have been able to provide an RN officer for the
team, as this sort of close monitoring by donors is highly desirable. In its report, while recommending various improvements
CONFIDENTIAL