TNAG-1180-FCO40-1482-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-the--1982 — Page 46

As for the use of Refugee Processing Centres, there is need

to use existing facilities and structures in the most economic and

sensible way in order to responsibly spend the funds given to my

Office for this purpose. cleared to allow refugees from the holding centres and camps to be processed speedily. The Refugee Processing Centres have proved their value in easing the situation of the first asylum camps.

We are

doing everything to encourage their use to full capacity, thus

obviating the need for further construction or additional facilities.

It is, therefore, with satisfaction that I note the use of the

Refugee Processing Centres by an increasing number of governments.

The transit centres in Thailand should be

You will note from the documents distributed to you certain

suggestions and proposals to deal in a more co-ordinated manner with

the problem of disabled refugees and emergency medical cases. We

are looking forward to discussing the modalities of these suggestions

with the countries interested in participating and thank them

1

for their co-operation in helping these refugees. I should like to

mention that we would like to offer our assistance and advice to

overcome problems caused by situations in which refugees are placed

for one year or more on medical holds and we are confident that we

are able to offer solutions in a humanitarian manner which respects

both the concern of the receiving countries and the refugees.

Another problem is that of refugees who have relatives in one

country and are therefore ineligible for admission to any other country.

Some of these countries, who have only a very small refugee population,

can for a variety of reasons, select and admit the refugees to their

territory only once a year. This in turn means that those refugees

having relatives there may have to wait up to one year until their

turn comes to go to the country of their final destination. We would

like to suggest that family reunion cases may be dealt with by UNHCR,

in close co-operation with those countries. On other suggestions