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3. The UNHCR would expect to establish the repatriation programme
in consultation with the Vietnamese authorities and to exercise
general supervision over it. This supervision would include the
direct monitoring of the conditions under which returning boat
people were received back into the community. The actual provision
of assistance would be a matter for the voluntary organisations.
4.
The UNHCR would no doubt prefer to see a resolution of the
general problem of boat people in the region through a multilateral
repatriation programme covering other first asylum places besides
Hong Kong. We believe that they might be prepared to consider a
smaller pilot programme involving only returnees from Hong Kong if
this could be started in advance of programmes with other places of first asylum. But this is looking progressively less likely: the
Malaysians have themselves now completed a first round of
discussions with the Vietnamese and events seem destined to move
into multilateral channels.
Financial implications of a Repatriation Programme
5.
The UNHCR envisage that reintegration assistance would largely be given in kind. Most returnees would be going back to rural
areas. They might receive a "kit" comprising rice, agricultural tools and domestic equipment. Further assistance might be given to
the communities to which the returnees were going back: examples are
the construction of dispensaries or village schools. Those
returning to an urban background would probably need a cash
hand-out. In hard currency terms this would be small suggest US$500 to $800 for a family depending on the number of family members. The UNHCR envisage that the cost of an initial
programme would not exceed US$5 million for the first year. Details
of costing and the initial number of beneficaries would be worked
out between UNHCR and the Vietnamese Government.
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the UNHCR
6. It is too early to estimate the number of boat people likely to
be involved or the years over which the contributions are likely to
be made. At present there are 9,000 potential returnees in Hong
Kong. The total population of boat people elsewhere in the region
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