TNAG-0895-FCO40-1105-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 141

Pifacts

1814

desire to take this thetically to review

y Lords, I have the thought that

There are two int of view. One ation Committee ght already to this tinue to do so; e extent of accom- d wish to have. on, the point has ope that it will be in this House but

Lords, could the ecisely is entitled present?

C.

Lords, everyone

Lords, I believe persons as well. t not?

y Lords, it is to Members of

It is open to Westminster to such activities as ld be carried on.

Lords, would I g that many of ever visited the

Lords, that may e and has access

ERDALE: My recommedation, his further point esent the Lobby inces Chamber, o the Members'

>

of the corridor.

espondents were

Chamber, that ly ameliorating nmodation can

Her whether the use the Peers'

1815 Geneva Conference on [24 JULY 1979] Lobby is really the equivalent of the Members' Lobby in the House of Commons, and members of the Lobby do have access to that.

GENEVA CONFERENCE ON INDO-CHINESE REFUGEES

3.12. p.m.

Lord BROCKWAY: My Lords, I beg leave to ask Her Majesty's Government the Question of which I had given Private Notice, namely:

66

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will make a statement regarding the conclusions of the Geneva Conference on the Indo-Chinese refu- gees."

Lord TREFGARNE: My Lords, with the leave of the House, as my noble friend the Foreign Secretary is in Brussels today, I shall reply to the Question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Brockway,

My Lords, in response to the proposal that my right honourable friend the Prime Minister made to him on 31st May, and with the support of many other Governments, the United Nations Secre- tary-General called an international meet- ing in Geneva on 20th and 21st July to discuss the problem of refugees and displaced persons in South-East Asia. Sixty-five countries were represented. My noble friend the Foreign and Common- wealth Secretary and my honourable friend the Minister of State (Mr. Blaker) attended the meeting together with the Governor of Hong Kong. Each Govern- ment stated their views. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Dr. Waldheim summed up.

As my noble friend said in his speech, and Dr. Waldheim confirmed, this meeting was unprecedented. It was also important and could have even more important results. In concentrating_international | attention on the plight of the refugees and on the urgent need to help them and the countries in which they have sought refuge, the conference was humanitarian. But it was widely agreed that the problem could not be solved unless attention was also given to its root causes and that these have been the inhumane policies of Vietnam.

Indo-Chinese Refugees

1816

The conference resulted in a massive increase in offers of resettlement places, from 125,000 to 260,000, and in new pledges of additional financial support for the United Nations High Com- missioner for Refugees' activities amount- ing to 190 million United States dollars. The Vietnamese Government indicated that they would suspend for a time the export of boat people, the first time that this Government have acknowledged even implicitly that they control this wicked traffic, and will discuss measures for the safe and orderly departure of those of their citizens who wish to leave. The conference also demonstrated the strength of international concern about Cambodia, the need for a political settlement in that strife-torn country and the even more urgent need for food aid to its starving people.

There was also widespread affirmation of several vital humanitarian principles repeated in Dr. Waldheim's summing-up: the basic right of individuals to stay in their own country or leave as a matter of free will; that when they leave they must have orderly arrangements for departure; a safe journey and an assured destination; that the principle of first asylum must be respected by the countries to which the refugees now flee; and that the international community must work together for their resettlement. In their respect for human values these are vital principles.

None of this would have happened if there had not been a conference. And the conference would not have taken place if Britain had not proposed it. We commend Dr. Waldheim and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for bringing it about in a matter of weeks.

We hope that the world community now has at least a breathing space while it sets about the urgent task of clearing the refugee camps in South-East Asia and so giving new lives to the boat people and land refugees. This is the first priority as Dr. Waldheim repeated in his summing-up. The world community is clearly ready to grasp its responsibilities for bringing order into the human misery which marks the refugee situation in South-East Asia. The world now looks to Vietnam to show the same respon- sibility as a member of the community of nations.