Y BAN DIỀU HỢP TRANH ĐẤU CHO NGƯỜI
TỴ NẠN VIỆT NAM
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ACTION & COORDINATION COMMITTEE IN SUPPORT OF
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
Chairman: MC PHẨM HOọc Đinh
General Secretary: Mr Ton That Uan
POSITION PAPER: SCREENING: PRINCIPLES
PROCEDURE AND PRACTICE
1.
It is important to stress that Vietnam has always been a poor country although its natural resources are abundant and its people - when free to lead their own lives - are full of vitality. In the persistant poverty, due to a situation beyond their control, the people have been struck severely both by natural and man made disasters, i.e. the great famine during the second world war and the exodus from the North to the South in 1954. Tens of thousands of people died of starvation in 1945, none had become asylum seekers. Again the exodus from the North to the South of Vietnam of over one million people seeking freedom did not produce a ripple in the international community on the refugee issue.
This is because the essence of our life is the spiritual links with our ancestors many generations past, the social and emotional links with a network of life that has evolved harmoniously over the centuries. Nothing or almost nothing could force the Vietnamese to leave their homeland, their ancestors, their villages, their neighbourhood because to them these are life in itself no matter how 'poor' these are.
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It is only when the very foundation of life itself is removed that people are forced to flee. The alternative is 'death', culturally, socially, spiritually and perhaps physically.
Looking in this direction, the asylum seekers in the camps in South East. Asia are, in every sense, refugees. And the fact that people have fled their country in large numbers should raise alarm in the international community as to what is wrong with the regime in power in that country.
Instead their claim of inhuman treatment is disregarded en masse in the first place and the screening idea was introduced to select those with more valid claims as being refugees. Our position is that people's claims should be respected and properly considered (taking into account the fact people don't risk life for material goods under any circumstances) and the people concerned be assisted to prepare their case. They might or might not be deemed as 'genuine' refugees but in all circumstances they should be at least granted asylum.
/contd......