TNAG-0895-FCO40-1105-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 197

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LEAGUE OF RED CROSS SOCIETIES

P.O.B. 276, 1211 Geneva 19 Telgraphic address: Licross Geneva

Telephone: 34 55 80 - Telex: LORCS CH 22 555

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS

17, av, de la Paix, CH - 1211 Geneva Telegraphic address: Intercroixrouge Telephone: 34 60 01 - Telex: CICR CH 22 269

Joint press release

International Committee of the Red Cross No 1367 League of Red Cross Societies No General 14 28 June 1979

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: RED CROSS CALLS FOR ACTION

Geneva (ICRC/League) The International Red Cross is today prevented from providing any kind of humanitarian relief to:

more than 15,000 "boat people" who are at sea and are refused permission to land,

some 80,000 Cambodians who have sought refuge in Thailand and of whom over 40,000 have been forced back and are trapped without the basic means of survival,

to the hundreds of thousands of victims of the conflict in Cambodia.

So that it can bring immediate relief to these people the International Red Cross demands the following urgent action:

1. That all governments whose ships are sailing in the region instruct their

captains to respect the Brussels Convention of 1910, which concerns rescuing people in distress and putting them ashore at a port,

2. That Governments in the region stop turning these refugees away from

their coasts,

3. That Governments in the countries of final settlement immediately pledge to take a large number of these new arrivals so as to ease the burden on countries of first asylum,

4. That the Authorities in Cambodia permit an immediate distribution of Red

Cross relief supplies to the people forced back from Thailand, as a first step towards a massive relief programme for victims of the Cambodian conflict,

5. That the Thai authorities open their borders to refugees and, at the same

time, allow the Red Cross to continue aiding those who are already there and to assist new arrivals.

The Red Cross has national and international teams and supplies ready to assist these victims throughout the region and in countries of final settlement. These measures must be taken immediately, without waiting for more wide-ranging plans to be adopted by the international community.

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