nd
UK report on 32
Session on
UNHCR
Executive Committee
UNS 243119
ANNEX F
UK STATEMENT IN PROTECTION DEBATE
M
Dr P Weiss 15 October 1981
We have noted with satisfaction that the number of parties to the 1951 Convention and/or the 1967 Protocol now stands at 90, almost 3/5 of the membership of the U.N. A number of States in whose territories large numbers of refugees reside are, however, still not yet parties to these instruments.
We regret that there has been no increase in the number of parties to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and believe that greater efforts should be made to obtain further accessions to this important Convention.
We welcome and support all efforts of the Office to prevent refoulement. In the UK also there has been a considerable increase of asylum seekers. The number in 1960 was, almost twice as much as in 1979.
We have noted from the Note on International Protection that the H.C. now applies in Africa the widened definition contained in the 0.A. U. Convention. We take it that in the other continents he still applies his original mandate. Does this not create a dichotomy?
We are glad to note that in the document on Determination of Refugee Status (A/AC.96/INF.152/Rov. 3) the procedure applied in the UK is now described.
As to the items on the agenda of the Sub-Committee on Interational Protection, the Australian initiative has provided an opportunity to study the problems raised by the mass influx of asylum seekers in depth. We welcome the work of the Group of Experts on temporary refuge and are pleased that the original ideas have now been consolidated in conclusions which have our full support.
we also support the recommendations on asylum seekers rescued at sea. We appreciate the Netherlands proposals made in the Working Faper on, the resettlement of asylum seekers rescued at sea which deserves close study by the Working Group to be set up, particularly by countries in which, like the United Kingdom, do not participate in the DISERO scheme.
We welcome UNHCR's working paper on family reunification and can support without qualification the final version of the Sub-Committee's recommendations on this subject.
In conclusion we would like to reiterate the importance which the UK Government attaches to the protection activities of the Office,