TNAG-0975-FCO40-1194-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-other--1980 — Page 45

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established to do. At first it was limited to protecting and assisting European refugees largely because of the geographic restrictions laid down in the 1951 Convention, though this was later rectified by the 1967 Protocol. A separate organisation (UNRWA) was set up to cope with Palestinian refugees (1.8 million today). In 1957 the General Assembly authorised the High Commissioner to use his good offices on behalf of refugees and displaced persons outside Europe. The General Assembly has also adopted a series of resolutions authorising, encouraging or requesting UNHCR to provide material assistance to particular groups. Thus UNHCR responded in the 1950s and 1960s to resolutions on Hungarian refugees (1956 - 170,000 were resettled), Chinese refugees in Hong Kong (1957), Algerian refugees in Morocco and Tunisia (1958-61) and Angolan refugees in the Congo (1965). Furthermore, in 1971 GA resolution 2956 authorised the High

Commissioner "to participate at the invitation of the Secretary- General in those humanitarian endeavours of the UN for which his

Office has particular expertise and experience". In this way UNHCR was called upon to concern itself with persons displaced within

their own countries who do not come within the Mandate laid down."

in the Statute.

7

The Secretary-General has asked the High Commissioner to undertake a variety of humanitarian tasks: for example, to co-ordinate UN humanitarian assistance to Cyprus (1974), to assist South African refugee students (1977), and for an "initial period" to co-ordinate a UN programme for the rehabilitation of returning refugees and displaced persons in Zimbabwe amounting to

$110 million (March 1980).

8 The 1970s saw more refugee crises than any other period. The decade opened with UNHCR's biggest operation in terms of numbers when in 1971 10 million Bengalis fled from East Pakistan to India and the Secretary-General asked UNHCR to serve as a focal point for the co-ordination of relief efforts. The successful repatriation by March 1972 of all the Bengalis was a watershed for UNHCR and provided it with the experience for the crises to follow: 170,000 Burundi refugees in 1972/73, the return of 194,000 refugees to Southern Sudan (1977), resettlement of 40,000 Asians from Uganda (1972) and the subsequent handling of their

/compensation

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