TNAG-1066-FCO40-1316-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 88

E/CN.4/1503 page 12

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ΟΥ,

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24. To assert that the phenomenon of mass exodus would practi- cally disappear if States respected

in the case of

economic rights, had the means to respect the rights elabor-

ated in the Universal Declaration amounts to saying the obvious.

What has to be established is the

the extent to which in any

realistic terms, taking into account the social, political and

economic realities of our times, it is possible to take action

at international level for containing, if not eliminating, one

of the most tragic phenomena of our times.

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25.

C. Mass Exodus

Terminology can cause confusion, and problems of no-

menclature have contributed to the lack of understanding of the

phenomenon of mass exodus. While recognizing, as Erasmus did,

that "all definitions are dangerous", it is exceedingly diffi-

cult

to plan adequately if the problem is not delineated. For the purpose of this Study, two main criteria have been used

for a situation to qualify as mass exodus:

It is

(i) In quantitative terms, if the number of persons leaving is very high in relation to the country of origin or the country of asylum. difficult to establish a percentage vis-à-vis the national populations, since the size of the two (or more, in the case of there being more than one country of asylum) is bound to be different, just as the loss of manpower of the or absorptive capacity of the other are bound to be at

at variance. In the overview of the Decade (Annex I), it will be seen that some of the situations selected have involved a loss of population amounting to more

more than a quarter of the national population. However, a flow of even one per cent or less in a country

with say 40 or 50 million people could well constitute a mass influx for a receiving country.

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5.

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