Informal Background Note for the Consultations
on Indo-Chinese Asylum-Seekers in South-East Asia
(Bangkok, 27 28 October 1988)
I.
Introduction
1.
This informal note is an attempt to highlight a number of topics and issues that may figure prominently in the preparatory work/consultations for
This note the proposed International Conference on Indo-Chinese Refugees. will, hopefully, facilitate the informal consultations in Bangkok and provide
The note is not a policy paper by the some "talking points" for participanta.
High Commissioner nor it is intended to be exhaustive in the subjects covered. The sequence of subjects/items covered does not, of course, represent any order of priority or preference for the purposes of the informal
meeting.
2.
At its thirty-ninth session, the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme, in endorsing the proposal by the Association of the South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the convening of an International Conference on Indo-Chinese Refugees, called upon the international community and the United Nations, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations "to give full support to the preparations for and organization of this. conference so that consensus may be achieved on conference objectives such as the preservation of first asylum, determination of refugee status, maintenance of adequate resettlement levels, repatriation, orderly departure, control of illegal departure and other issues of importance to the parties concerned". The proposal for convening of such conference is likely to be sanctioned by the General Assembly of the United Nations in the course of its current
session.
The task of preparation has benefitted from a headstart insofar as
Certain important thresholds welcome process of dialogue has already begun. have been crossed. The United Kingdom/Hong Kong delegation has just ended a
3.