TNAG-0899-FCO40-1109-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 115

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TO IMMEDIATE UKMIS NEW YORK

TELEGRAM NUMBER 797 OF 13 NOVEMBER

1855

HKK 243/1

P.A.

*

NO. 51

1 5 NOV 1979

INFO SAVING HONG KONG, HANOI, UKMIS GENEVA, BANGKOK, MANILA, JAKARTA, KUALA LUMPUR, SINGAPORE.

THIRD COMMITTEE: ITEM 83: REFUGEES

1. FOLLOWING ARE DRAFT NOTES FOR YOUR SPEECH ON THIS ITEM:

SOUTH EAST ASIA

A) THE SECRETARY-GENERAL'S REPORT MARKS THE URGENCY AND SCALE

OF THE BOAT REFUGEE CRISIS, WHICH REACHED ITS PEAK IN JUNE.

DR WALDHEIM'S RESPONSE TO THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER'S

CALL LED TO REMARKABLE INCREASES IN THE NUMBER OF PLACES

AND IN THE FUNDS AVAILABLE FOR THIS REFUGEE PROBLEM. HIS REPORT GIVES US AN OPPORTUNITY TO ASSESS PROGRESS,

B) AT THE GENEVA MEETING, LORD CARRINGTON IDENTIFIED TWO

AIMS: TO GET THE GOVERNMENT OF VIETNAM TO EXERCISE A HUMANE POLICY

IN RESPECT OF ITS OWN PEOPLE, AND TO FIND WAYS OF SHARING THE UNFAIR BURDEN BEING BORNE BY HONG KONG AND THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH

EAST ASIA.

C) THE SOLUTION DEPENDS NOT ONLY ON THE GENEROSITY OF THE INTER- NATIONAL COMMUNITY, WHICH WAS AMPLY DEMONSTRATED AT GENEVA, BUT ALSO ON THE NEED FOR A PERMANENT CHANGE IN THE POLICIES WHICH HAD LED TO THE EXODUS. IN THE SINGLE

MONTH OF JUNE, 70,000 BOAT REFUGEES REACHED THE SHORES OF SOUTH EAST ASIA: MANY MORE MUST HAVE DIED ON THE WAY.

D) THE SECRETARY-GENERAL'S REPORT DOES NOT CLAIM THAT THE PROBLEM HAS BEEN SOLVED. AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER THERE WERE STILL OVER 180,000 BOAT PEOPLE IN CAMPS IN THE REGION. BEFORE THE NEW INFLUX FROM CAMBODIA THERE WERE ROUGHLY AS MANY LAND REFUGEES

IN THAILAND. EVEN AT THE NEW TARGET RATE OF RESETTLEMENT,

OF 25,000 A MONTH, THE PROBLEM OF BOAT REFUGEES WILL BE WITH THE PLACES OF FIRST ASYLUM FOR A LONG TIME.

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