SAVE THE CHILDREN
LONDON TIMES SAT 24 JUME 1989
Boat people's plight From the Director General of Save
Ihe Children
Sir, Philip Jacobson's account (June 20) of conditions facing Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong is harrowing. There are now some 42,000 in all, a third of whom are children. Many have been held in detention for several years.
Save the Children has been working in the Hong Kong camps and with refugees resettled in the UK since 1979. Anyone who has been involved with this problem over the years knows that it is complicated and will not be overcome by the simplistic sol- utions and angry accusations so often levelled at the United Na- tions High Commissioner for Refugees or the governments of Hong Kong, Britain, and other countries which might offer resettlement.
One thing is clear. The con- ditions in which Vietnamese refu- gees and asylum seekers are being held are intolerable. The inter- national community must help the Hong Kong Government to improve them and take measures to speed up the humane dispersal of the camp populations through repatriation or resettlement.
Those who would face a genuine MUST NOT BE LETASLAYZ) BUT THE threat of persecution in Vietnam
process of establishing refugee status must be both accelerated and improved. So, too, given the fact that settlement in Hong Kong is not a realistic option, must the procedure and the preparation of refugees for resettlement in third countries.
For many boat people repatri- ation is the only long-term sol- ution. In such cases repatriation should not be delayed. but it must be supervised to ensure adequate protection and accompanied by the urgent resumption of dev- elopment aid to Vietnam. This is the only answer if there is to be any alleviation of the conditions which have led so many people to leave their homes.
The recent Geneva conference failed to address this issue ade- quately. The British Government can and should give a lead. Yours faithfully, NICHOLAS HINTON, ON, Director General, Save the Children, Mary Datchelor House, 17 Grove Lane, Camberwell, SES.
June 21.
TUTHL 7.13