TNAG-0975-FCO40-1194-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-other--1980 — Page 3

Development of the Office's action in regard to voluntary repatriation

The early activity of the Office in regard to voluntary repatriation was aimed at the return of individuals or of small groups of refugees. This activity was principally concerned with resolving various technical problems connected with the actual return of the refugee to his country of origin, viz. obtaining entry permission from the authorities of that country, ensuring that repatriating refugees were provided with the necessary travel documents and transit visas and, if necessary, covering the transport costs. While the Office continues to provide such assistance with regard to the repatriation of individuals or small groups of refugees, it has been increasingly called upon to engage in more far-reaching activities in the case of large-scale repatriation operations. Where a large-scale return of refugees is foreseen, the absence in the country of origin of the necessary facilities for the reception and reintegration of substantial numbers of returning refugees may constitute a major disincentive to repatriation. The idea has thus emerged that UNHCR should concern itself with the availability of adequate reception arrangements in the country of origin and in certain cases even with the implementation of assistance projects for the reintegration of returning refugees. This extension of the Office's functions in regard to voluntary repatriation derives from a series of General Assembly resolutions adopted subsequent to the Statute.

8. The first occasion on which UNHCR was required to assist in large-· scale repatriation operations and to consider the possibility of facilitating the resettlement to their homeland was in 1962 with the mass return of Algerian refugees from Morocco and Tunisia. 1/ Subsequently, in 1972, UNHCR was requested by the General Assembly to render the maximum possible assistance to the Government of the Sudan in the relief, rehabilitation and resettlement of Sudanese refugees coming from abroad. 2/ Thereafter, successive resolutions of the General Assembly have given UNHCR a general competence to assist in the rehabilitation of returning refugees when this may be necessary to secure the effective implementation of large-scale repatriation operations. 3/

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In the last decade, UNHCR has been involved in a number of repatriation operations of significant size involving both the return and the reintegration of returning refugees.

1/ Resolution 1672 (XVI) of 18 December 1961

2/ Resolution 2958 (XXVII)

3/ e.g. Resolutions 3143 (XXVIII), 3271 (XXIX), 3454 (XXX), 31/35 and 32/67