TNAG-1274-FCO40-1624-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 19

Both these options are difficult, and both can be contemplated

only when conditions are ripe. It is natural for refugees and

those concerned for them to show impatience, but premature action

may lead to resettlement being preferred too often to the still

better solution of repatriation.

Resettlement has become ever

more difficult in recent years. Its costs are vast, not only

the financial ones of transport and initial settlement, but in

the human problems of integration in an alien environment, and

the concealed social costs to the country of resettlement.

Repatriation is now being seen more and more clearly as the

best solution, particularly where massive refugee flows are

concerned. Where else can a refugee better go than to his own

old home, where the language, climate, social and human

environment are all familiar to him? Home is best.

11.

of refugees

!

Repatriation/must however be fully voluntary: and this

implies that the root causes of the original refugee flows have

to a large extent been removed. We are particularly interested

in the current operation to repatriate Ethiopian refugees

voluntarily from Djibouti, and congratulate the High Commissioner.

and the governments of the two countries concerned. The success

achieved in this case emboldens me to say to the High Commissioner

that we hope he will in his thinking about the rôle of the UNHCR

in relation to durable solutions, substitute for the low-key,

purely chemical image of a catalyst that of a goad, or a "prod".

For we readily admit that governments do need prodding in the

direction of durable solutions.

5-

/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT