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the region has been seriously jeopardized during the past year. This much is now clear: that a new international consensus on measures to address the issue of asylum seekers in the region is essential if first asylum is to be maintained or restored; and that a critical element of any new consensus is an Orderly Departure Program that is not only functioning but expanding, one that is a truly, viable alternative to clandestine departure from
Vietnam.
Last week in Kuala Lumpur the UNHCR chaired the second
meeting of a 17-Nation Working Group which is considering a draft action plan of new measures to address the asylum seeker problem, including, prominently, a strengthening of the ODP and other
legal emigration arrangements.
As many of you are aware, the U.S. began processing applications for resettlement under new procedures in September 1987, following the Vietnamese suspension of processing