4.
b) The Situation in Thailand
A Report had been received from the American Council of Voluntary Agencies on the Humanitarian Needs of Refugees in Thailand.
It was agreed to circulate copies with the minutes.
The following organisations reported on their work in Thailand:-
i) Save the Children Fund
Mr. Cumber had been in Thailand in December 1975 and had visited three of the areas mentioned in the report and had arranged with the authorities for innoculation programmes. He had also met the representative of the UNHCR.
As a result there were now five medical teams in Thailand with Thai doctors and other personnel. The Thai Government had now asked for a British team.
The centres visited were not really refugee camps as much as settlements set up in convenient places. Some of the people were Vietnamese who had been living in Laos.
Conditions were nearly as bad as those seen in Bangladesh but the numbers were
less.
There was great need for assistance of all sorts and this meant a very heavy job for the UNHCR.
ii) Project Vietnam Orphans
...
Rev. R.J. Clarke reported on the work of PVO which had started in one of the camps in Thailand in March. Plans were being made for three projects to feed 200 children daily; to extend this eventually to the provision of hot meals; to run a day care centre, if possible with a building on a new site. Two workers were already in Thailand and a third expected shortly.
iii) Ockenden had a representative in Thailand. Miss Joyce Pearce reported that there might be a special appeals for funds to help school age children, particularly those without families.
iv) Oxfam
Mr. Bernard Llewellyn had been in Thailand in January and had found conditions comparatively good. Much depended on the weather and other temporary factors in the camps. Oxfam was undertaking a joint project with the YMCA and had found good coordination between the UNHCR and the voluntary agencies.
v) The Chairman referred to the report of the American Council of Voluntary Agencies on a Coordinating Committee, which included Ockenden, PVO, SCF, YMCA and the Catholic groups.
vi) Mr. Jean Heidler referred to a report from the UNHCR's representative in Thailand. There were still some 70,000 refugees in the camps and about 10,000 outside.
Reports issued by Reuter that some thousands would probably be deported back to Indo-China had now been categorically denied. It might be, however, that the original statements about possible refoulement had been made by the Government in order to discourage more refugees from entering Thailand and also to ensure that all should register with the UNHCR. At that time a deadline had been given as 4th August 1975.
Although the official Government policy was that none would be allowed to stay permanently, it was hoped that Thailand would arrange settlement for some, at any rate, till there were possibilities of acceptance elsewhere.
The UNHCR programme in Thailand had three parts
-
relief in camps
-
repatriation (a few hundred had been helped to return so far) resettlement in other countries.
To date, the greater part of the funds had been spent on the relief aspects of the programme but the UNHCR would assist those who were to be resettled.
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