TNAG-1274-FCO40-1624-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 299

Extract from UNHER report to ECOSOL E 1983/47

g

26.5.83

W82

45.

E.

Voluntary repatriation

Voluntary repatriation whenever feasible is generally recognized as being the most desirable solution to refugee problems. Its importance has been stressed on repeated occasions by the Executive Committee and also by the General Assembly. The promotion of voluntary repatriation, in co-operation with governments, is of course one of the basic tasks entrusted to the High Commissioner under the Statute of the Office.

46. During the period under review the large-scale repatriation operation for refugees from Chad, which had begun during the previous reporting period, was largely completed as remaining groups in Cameroon, Nigeria, the Central African Republic and Sudan returned home. Some 200,000 persons including internally displaced persons received assistance from UNHCR under this programme. In Latin America, sizeable numbers of Bolivian refugees returned to their home country following political changes during the reporting period and UNHCR Branch Offices in the region provided