OXFAM
樂施會
RESETTLEMENT
We asked Mr French about the prospects for resettlement in 1988. "Absolute disaster area," he said. "You can quote me on that it is an absolute disaster. There is nothing. All we have had this year, apart from the British initiative
is an offer of ten additional places in New Zealand and 50 places from France."
For three years resettlement held steady
3,694 refugees left in 1984 3,953 refugees left in 1985
3,816 refugees left in 1986
But in the first ten months of this year only 1,915 refugees have departed, little more than half last year's total. Next year may be even worse.
One problem is that the United States, by far the biggest resettlement country, does not normally accept northern Vietnamese, and most of the recent arrivals are northerners. But the main trouble is that third countries - with a few notable exceptions such as Canada are losing interest in the refugees. Compassion fatigue has set in.
Much attention has been focused on Britain, because of its special ties with Hong Kong. It was hoped that it might set a good example and so encourage other countries to offer more generous quotas.
In fact, Britain's latest offer was better than feared but worse than hoped for. After an eight-month delay, Britain finally announced in May that it would accept 468 family reunion cases over two years. A subsequent request to take more has apparently been refused.
Acceptance of another 468 refugees is obviously better than nothing but it falls far short even of last year's performance, when 474 refugees left for Britain in a single year. The new British offer has failed to impress other countries and has not led to any new quotas.
The family reunion programme is being phased over two years because the British government says it cannot cope with more than 20 new arrivals per month. This seems a bit feeble for a country of 56 million people, but perhaps it reflects the generally unhappy British experience of resettlement.
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