TNAG-0895-FCO40-1105-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 217

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3.

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 UN High Commissioner for

Refugees' activities amounting to US$190 million. The Vietnamese

Government indicated that it would suspend for a time the export of

boat people, the first time that this Government has acknowledged

&

even implicitly that it controls this wicked traffic, and will discuss

measures for the safe and orderly departure of those of its citizens

who wish to leave. The conference also demonstrated the strength of

international concern about Cambodia, the need for a political

the even more urgent need

settlement in that strife-torn country and the

for food aid to its starving people.

4.

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 refugees now flee; and that the international community

must work together for their resettlement. In their respect for

human values these are vital principles.

5. None of this would have happened if there had not been a

And the conference would not have taken place if Britain

conference.

had not proposed it. We commend Dr Waldheim and the UN High

Commissioner for Refugees for bringing it about in a matter of weeks.

374

16.