TNAG-0793-FCO40-997-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1978 — Page 151

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Protection (Item 4)

11. The Sub-Committee on Protection met just before the

Executive Committee on 6 October to discuss travel documents

for refugees and the extra-territorial effect of the determination

of refugee status. The conclusions of the Sub-Committee were ado-

pted and form part of the Report. The High Commissioner supported

a suggestion made by Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands that the

Sub-Committee meet for two days next year and that the first item

discussed by the Committee should be protection.

12.

Introducing item 4 the Director of Protection announced

that since the last Session Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Sao

Tome and Principe, Panama, Spain and Somalia had acceded to the

Convention and Protocol, bringing the number of States parties

to the Convention and/or Protocol to 77. Jaeger also referred'

to the need to maintain a constant dialogue with governments on

the procedure for determining refugee status, and this theme was

reverted to by many delegations. The High Commissioner himself

took the opportunity of seeing Mr Gould privately to stress to

him the importance he attached to this subject. Similar approaches

were made by Jaeger and Haselman (the new Chief of the European

Section). The representatives of Switzerland and the FRG

described recent legislation enacted in their countries on

determining refugee status. It was in response to the considerable

interest shown in this matter that Mr Gould made a candid statement

(Annex D) on the UK's efforts to improve its procedure. Mr Jaeg, er

also drew attention to the Handbook on Protection and Criteria for

Determining Refugee Status which had been prepared at the request

of the last Executive Committee (advanced copy already circulated).

On the question of the resumption of the Conference on Territorial

Asylum, a paragraph in the Nigerian draft "resolution" called for

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