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Background and Argument
The talks in Hanoi
4.
A first round of talks with the Vietnamese took place in Hanoi
on 4-5 August. They ended inconclusively. In essence the outcome
amounted to:
5.
agreement that the Vietnamese would take realistic and effective action to stem the outflow of boat people: agreement in principle that boat people in Hong Kong should be repatriated:
but Vietnamese insistence that only volunteers should be
returned:
and a clear indication that the Vietnamese are looking for financial aid to assist the reintegration of returnees.
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The Vietnamese approach to the talks evidently formed part of a wider strategy directed in the longer term towards international respectability and access to development aid. We judge the Vietnamese insistence on voluntary returns to be essentially tactical. If some sort of financial contribution is forthcoming to assist reintegration and the Vietnamese were careful not to ask for wider development aid - it should be possible to move towards an arrangement permitting the return of more substantial numbers of boat people. But there will be difficult practical problems to overcome, including the need to involve UNHCR as the channel for financial assistance, the supervisor of a repatriation programme and the guarantor of the conditions in which boat people return. principle UNHCR are ready to play that role: but their approach is bureaucratic and their inclination will be to favour cumbersome multilateral arrangements also covering boat people in other places
of first asylum.
In
CONFIDENTIAL