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at the recent exodus from Vietnam poses severe problems for the ASEAN countries. Only Thailand has faced problems and at least in part these are due to corruption within Thailand itself. Other countries have not suffered and it would be wrong to imply they have. Secondly, there was general agreement at last week's ICG meeting in Ottawa that little would be gained by hectoring states, Vietnam included, to do more. In any case, Vietnam is co-operating with the UNHCR and resettlement countries at present and it would be wrong to imply it is not. (Sadly the ASEAN countries are not). Thirdly, there is no reference in the ASEAN draft to the need to consider the return of non-refugees. This is central to our policy and a suitable reference must be included. Finally, there is no reference in the ASEAN draft to the responsibility of countries of first asylum. But the ASEAN countries have had a free ride on the subject for far too long. It is time that they faced up to realities and co-operated more in efforts to find a lasting solution.
4.
wriginal
If we cannot persuade ASEAN to accept the regional EC text, I suggest the following as a re-draft. The sections underlined are the sections which, in our view, must be included in the final text, while the sections in square brackets contain language I would prefer to see deleted but which we could live with if others wish for it to be included.
Refugees
ASEAN and EC Ministers shared the view that the plight of those who have fled from Indo-China, including those still in refugee transit camps in ASEAN countries and those along the Thai-Cambodian border, remained the cause of serious concern. These refugees and displaced persons have an inalienable right to return to their home countries. The Ministers called for a lasting solution to the refugee problem by serious domestic reforms and a peaceful end to the Cambodian conflict. They also called for consideration at an international level of arrangements for the return to their place of origin of those arrivals who did not meet to be agreed criteria for refugee status, subject to satisfactory guarantees as to their treatment on
return.
The Ministers were seriously concerned about the recent dramatic increases in the flow of Vietnamese boat people [which pose severe economic, social, political and security problems to the ASEAN countries]. [They were of the view that as the problem originated with Vietnam, Vietnam should take the necessary steps to halt the flow]. As long as the flow of refugees continues and those who have had to leave their country are denied their inalienable right to return home safely, humanitarian efforts co-ordinated between the countries of first asylum, the resettlement countries and the international organisations concerned will have to continue to ease the suffering of the refugees and to find them a new home.
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