C
11.
CONFIDENTIAL
UNHCR CONSULTATIONS PRELIMINARY TO A CONFERENCE
1. The UNHCR, at the request of the Secretary-General, started
on 14 June to consult governments for a possible conference.
He
is consulting all members of his Executive Committee, all present
countries of resettlement, the countries of South East Asia and
several Latin American countries as well as the USSR and the
current Chairman of the African Group.
2. In preparation for the conference, Mr Hartling is suggesting
to governments an "indicative number" of Indo-Chinese refugees
which they might take. The UNHCR has carefully worked out such
numbers for all countries where resettlement would be practicable
(he has excluded the USSR from this category). He has based his
calculations both on GNP and the size of the country. The aim is
to double the current total of offers of 125,000; the sum total
of all indicative numbers is slightly over 250,000, over the next
12 months.
3. He plans to take the line with South East Asian countries
that for every one person resettled in their area, two will be
accepted for resettlement in other countries. He is not proposing
individual indicative numbers for South East Asian countries but
considers that a group total of 60-70,000 would be reasonable.
4. The figure would be for permanent resettlement and would be
taken from among refugees in camps; they would not cover those
taken direct by countries when rescued by ships of their own flag.
5. The UK's and Hong Kong's "indicative quotas" are each 10,000*
the only others known to us
are:
Sweden
2,000
Denmark
1,000
Norway
1,000
/Finland
CONFIDENTIAL
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