TNAG-0587-FCO40-720-Aid-from-UK-for-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 233

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OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES

Note on refugees or displaced persons on the high seas

Following the events in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula in the spring of 1975 and in subsequent monchs, a total of over 250,000 persons left for other countries. Large numbers went directly to the United States of America (approximately 139,000) and Thailand (over 27,000), while much smaller numbers arrived in other countries of first asylum, mainly in South East Asia.

2. Considerable efforts have been made by governments, UNHCR and other inter- governmental organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations, to resettle displaced persons in countries of durable asylum, and to facilitate their local integration in countries of first asylum. A limited number of displaced persons has been able to repatriate. At present, it is estimated that durable solutions have been found for approximately 175,000 persons, while solutions through resettle- ment or otherwise are still needed for some 75,000 persons, of whom the great majority are in Thailand.

3.

While the massive arrival of displaced persons from Indo-China in countries of rst asylum occurred in the spring and summer of 1975, smaller numbers have con- tinued to arrive subsequently. The present note deals specifically with those

persons who leave their country of origin in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula in small

boats. In several cases, these small craft, although not always seaworthy, have

managed to arrive in a foreign port in South East Asia. In other cases, the dis-

placed persons have been rescued at sea, in accordance with Article Eleven of the

Erussels Convention of 1910 for the unification of certain rules of law relating to assistance and salvage at sea, and brought to the ship's first port of call.

44. However, the problems of these persons do not end when they reach land. Although they have often been granted temporary asylum at the request of UNHCR, there have also been instances where they have only been allowed to disembark if

resettlement opportunities were immediately available. Persons who leave on these fragile boats are sometimes obliged to continue living on them even when shore is in sight, until some country decides to admit them, either temporarily or for durable settlement. Frequently there are children, sick and old people aboard,

who are in the direst need. In other cases where such persons have been rescued by a passing ship, the ship concerned has had to sail before permission could be

granted for them to disembark. In such circumstances, a new application for per- mission to land has to be made to the authorities at the next port of call.

5. The High Commissioner brought this problem to the attention of the Permanent

hepresentatives in Geneva of States members of the Executive Committee of the High

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HOR/50B/16/76

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Pia G. 76-7224

ared for Yokohama.

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