-2-
place and were awaiting resettlement.
The
Galang (Indonesia,.) was about to receive its first refugees and would be up to 20,000" by the end of November, and the agreement for the establishment of the Philippines' SPC (for 50,000) would be signed today. first 10,000 should be moving there before the end of the year. The US representative stated that the US would provide 30% of the total costs of the SPC (if other governments provided the rest) but that apart from Australia no other governments had offered contributions. He did admit that the SPCs would be mainly for refugees awaiting resettlement in the US.
C) Orderly departure from Vietnam
De Haan said that a fundamental decision of the July Conference was to expand the scheme for Orderly Departure, but that not much progress had been made. The scheme was almost in place and UNHCR staffing in Ho Chi Minh Ville was being increased with the opening of an office there shortly. The differing immigration procedures of countries was a considerable problem; he requested governments to submit lists on a regular basis to UNHCR. The scheme was an integral part of solving the Indo-Chinese refugee problem, and he felt that the Vietnamese statement to the Executive Committee (in which they had called for a big expansion of the scheme) was a serious declaration of Vietnam's intent. Both Canada (which had received 6,000 family reunification requests and Luxembourg said they were participating and had submitted lists to UNHCR.
D)
Rescue at sea
De Haan reminded the meeting that a proposal which had emerged from the August meeting was that a pool of places be put at the disposal of UNHCR for refugees who were rescued at sea, but were not given a guarantee of resettlement by the flag state (usually in the case of flags of convenience). The US representative announced that they were prepared to reserve 500 places from their quota for such a pool and urged others to do so too. He added that UNHCR would have to be careful that such a pool did not discourage governments from maintaining guarantees they had been giving to refugees resuced by their flagships. The US accepted all such refugees rescued by US owned and US flag ships and were also prepared to take those rescued by other ships, who had close relatives in the US or were former US employees. The Seventh Fleet had rescued 700 and Seventh Fleet aircraft had identified 1,000 more, who were as a result rescued by merchant shipping. The UNHCR gave the following figures
Up to 30 September, 7,000 rescued at sea by 92 ships of 22 nations
June July August. 192 September296
549 190
2.
Following a remark by the Norwegian delegate to the effect that as Norwegian shipping was rescuing so many refugees Norway could not begin to start selection from the camps for their new quota, I made the following comments. Most governments probably had an cverall number of Indo Chinese refugees in mind which was the maximum they felt they could absorb for the time being, and
/that
1.
វ
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.