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We believe there is a danger that any policy which appears to favour returnees might cause resentment or even encourage others to make the journey to get the same benefits therefore, the emphasis should be on helping local communities.
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We believe the Vietnamese authorities need further help in addition to that provided by UNHCR, both to discourage departures and facilitate resettlement. In Quang Ninh the following suggestions were made:
a) video cameras to film the successful resettlement of returnees for showing in Hong Kong;
b) Land Rovers to enable local officials to visit returnees whose homes are some distance from the main centres of population. The present practice is to use bicycles even for long journeys on bad roads;
c) vocational training, both for returnees and local people, covering such skills as the repair and maintenance of machinery, household equipment, TV and electrical goods and sewing. Help for the local community has many obvious advantages over help for individual returnees;
d)
tools and equipment to help returnees possible by UNHCR.
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over and above that made
Clearly these are merely examples and we urge that a mission, initiated by the UK government and including NGOs, be seat to Vietnam to assess these needs in more detail.
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UNHCR currently monitors the safety and well-being of voluntary returnees. As far as we know this is only the second time in history that a return programme has covered monitoring of every individual (the other is in El Salvador). This appears to be working reasonably well though, given the distances and travel difficulties, it takes some time to visit all the people concerned. This will become more acute as numbers of returnees increase and we strongly recommend there should be additional UNHCR staff in Vietnam to meet the future workload.
We also recommend strongly that UNHCR should monitor all those coming back under the Orderly Return Programme. There are precedents for this including UNHCR involvement with the Lãos return programme. If UNHCR feels unable to take on this responsibility, we strongly urge that another independent organisation should be asked to do so.
There is a strongly held view in Hong Kong that the UK has not been very active in receiving Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong. HMG offered to take another 2,000 but is acting very slowly. The Home Office has not come forward with funds to help Refugee Action and Ockenden Venture to open reception centres to take the 2,000. While we understand the difficulties, we urge Government departments to show some sense of urgency in speeding up resettlement to Britain for people who have been waiting for years. We would also like the Government to facilitate the settlement of some disabled refugees and some unaccompanied minors. A selection team from Refugee Action, Ockenden Venture and Save the Children Fund should be sent out as soon as possible.
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