TNAG-1276-FCO40-1626-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 78

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refugees into Japanese society. Two Resettlement

Promotion Centers of the Refugee Resettlement

Assistance Headquarters are providing the refugees

with Japanese language lessons and vocational training

as well as offering them job opportunities.

(For details see Annex 2.)

(2) First Asylum

As regards the boat people who find their way

to Japan after being rescued at sea, Japan's basic position

is to grant permission to land for first asylum, regardless

of whether it is the first port of call or not, and

whether the vessel is a Japanese one or not, and without

asking, in principle, any guarantee of the flag state to

The cumulative take the refugees for final resettlement.

number of those boat people who have landed in Japan

for first asylum since 1975 reaches about 7,000. Most

of them (about 4,700) have departed then to third countries,

mainly to the United States (about 3,000), and some of them

locally settled in Japan (about 500). The present caseload

still remaining in Japan is about 1,800. (For details see Annex 3.)

Lately, though the outflow of the boat people from

Vietnam itself shows a trend of gradual decline, the

arrival to Japan still continues at the same pace as before.

On the other hand, their departure to third countries for

resettlement is becoming sluggish reflecting generally

restrictive trends of admission of major resettlement

countries.