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4.
a)
b)
c)
Viet Nam was committed to attempting to reduce the outflow of boat people, in particular through the expansion of the Orderly Departure Programme. This alone, however, would not suffice to impact on irregular departures.
The majority of people who leave by irregular means are unaware of resettlement requirements. Their departure is encouraged by rumours, illusions and misleading information. Thus an information campaign is an essential element in dissuading large categories of people from leaving clandestinely.
The
The principle of running such a campaign had been adopted by the Vietnamese Government as a policy decision at the highest level. Ministry for Information would assume responsibility for co-ordinating all media activities in Viet Nam (radio, television, documentary films, and press), with the aim of widely informing the public of relevant new policies embodied in the CPA..
Further co-ordination of initiatives will be required within and outside the countries of origin in order to ensure that the information campaign has maximum impact, bearing in mind the importance of providing full and objective information to the public at large, particularly to overseas communities orginating from the region.
5.
II Regular Departures
The Vietnamese Government has reconfirmed its full commitment to the acceleration and expansion of regular departure procedures and migration programmes, as demonstrated by the gradual and significant increase in the monthly departure statistics. In particular, it has reaffirmed its adherence to the provisions of paragraphs 2(a), (b) and (c) of the draft CPA. The solution of the problem of former re-education camp detainees, however, still requires additional bilateral negotiations.
During recent discussions held in Hanoi, UNHCR raised the following issues with the Government of Viet Nam which responded favourably:
6.
a)
b)
On the question of transportation, greater flexibility in the sharing of seats with other companies and stricter management and safety standards on the part of the national airline would be required in order to ensure the successful and smooth expansion of the programme. The Government recalled its constraints, indicated that a number of options to improve the performance and expand the capacity of the national airline were presently under study and undertook, in the short-term, to try and achieve the improvements proposed by UNHCR.
At the suggestion of a participating government, Viet Nam agreed to the usefulness of regular technical meetings in Ho-Chi-Minh City involving the main countries of final destination, the two transit countries, UNHCR and ICM in order to identify and overcome, at the working level, all impediments to the efficient running of the operation.