TNAG-0587-FCO40-720-Aid-from-UK-for-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 102

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b)

c)

an up-to-date assessment of the needs to be met;

a clear idea of how relief plans would be put into operation;

the role to be played by the various UN agencies;

a) some indication of the response of other donors to any renewed

appeal, especially of our EEC partners.

Refugees In and From Indo-China

The collapse of the non-communist regimes in South Vietnam and Cambodia in 1975 resulted in large numbers of Vietnamese and Cambodians leaving their countries. The UNHCR estimated at the time that over 140,000 Vietnamese left South Vietnam and that more than 10,000 refugees left Cambodia. The bulk of the Vietnamese refugees went to US territory, whereas most of the Cambodians went to Thailand. The largest concentration of refugees in South East Asia would appear to be in Thailand where there are estimated to be about 90,000 (including Laotians).

A total of £2 million relief aid for Indo China was granted in 1974/5, of which £250,000 went to the joint UNHCR/UNICEF emergency programme for Indo China which has now been concluded.

Un 30 January 1976, the UN High Commission for Refugees wrote to the Secretary of State appealing for a further contribution to one more of the three on-going UNHCR programmes in Indo China. These are:

a)

b)

c)

Assistance to displaced persons in Vietnam and Laos (target $20 million).

Assistance to Indo Chinese displaced persons in Thailand (target $12.4 million)

*

Assistance to Indo Chinese displaced persons outside their country of origin.

The programme at (a) would be classed by ODM as development aid rather than relief aid. As we currently provide no bilateral capital aid to the countries of Indo-China, it would not be consistent to contribute to such a programme. (Moreover, it has in any case been agreed that

further aid to Vietham should be deferred until more is known about the attitude of the Vietnamese authorities towards British property there).

A contribution towards assistance for the refugee problem in Thailand has not been recommended in view of the comparatively high per capita income of that country.

As to the programme for displaced persons outside their country of origin, this does not rate highly in terms of urgent humanitarian need. It has therefore been concluded that a further contribution (beyond the contribution made in 1975) would not be justified.

These decisions were communicated to UNHCR on 25 May and confirmed in a recent reply to a similar request from the Chairman of the Asia Committee of the Standing Conference of British Organisations for Aid to Refugees.

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