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Vietnam are entitled to benefit from minimum standards of humanitarian
treatment. This requires, inter alia, that they be admitted temporarily
to the territory pending the identification of an appropraite durable solution for them.
5.
Furthermore, States have a duty to refrain from forcefully returning
refugees, in any manner whatsoever, to the frontiers of territories where
their life or freedom would be threatened for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political
opinion. This non-refoulement principle is contained in article 33 of the
1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. It is also generally
considered to form part of customary international law and as such to be
binding upon all States whether signatories of the 1951 Convention or
not. The principle of non-refoulement is equally applicable to persons
seeking to enter the territory of a State as to those who are awaiting
determination of their status. This consequence flows from the
declaratory nature of such determinations and the peremptory character of
the principle in question.
The principle of admission has found expression in a number of
different fora. In the United Nations for example, the General Assembly,
6.
in adopting the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees in 1950, called upon governments to co-operate
with UNHCR, inter alia, by "admitting refugees to their territories, not
excluding those in the most destitute categories".
7.
The 1967 United Nations Declaration on Territorial Asylum confirms in
its article 3 that no asylum-seeker "shall be subjected to measures such as rejection at the frontier or, if he has already entered the territory
in which he seeks asylum, expulsion or compulsory return to any State where he may be subjected to persecution." Derogation from this principle
of admission was only permitted for "overriding reasons of national
security or in order to safeguard the population." The 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa goes further in that it makes admission compulsory and no exceptions to the principle of non-rejection at the frontier are accepted.
8.
A large number of the Conclusions adopted by the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme, which consists of 41 member States of the United Nations including the United Kingdom, deal with the issue of