TNAG-1277-FCO40-1627-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 122

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important tools is precisely his flexibility within his existing mandate (broad and demanding as it is) and the

personal

initiative open to him as United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees. It is tempting for experts and governments to offer

specific guidance to the High Commissioner in areas where

experience has given lessons.

the time, so too must their solutions, and it would be quite

wrong to allow increasing "transparency" in the operations of

UNHCR to limit the High Commissioner's traditional flexibility

in dealing with new problems (or old problems in new forms).

But just as problems change all

9. In the short term, talk of "solutions" to refugee problems

is perhaps misleading. What we mean is palliatives. But we need

not be apologetic about that. UNHCR has a proud record of

providing new refugees with international protection and

immediate assistance. (The two go naturally hand in hand.) In

the medium term, there is then the need to provide continuing,

but still temporary, support for the refugees in the countries of

asylum. Mass flows have made this a difficult task. We were

impressed to hear from President Nyerere of Tanzania when he

received the Nansen Medal last week of Tanzania's experience in

involving refugees in productive work, not only for its own sake,

but also to improve their morale, and their consciousness that

they have a contribution to make to the country which has given

them refuge.

10. In the longer term, we must think of "durable solutions".

This is an easy label for a complex phenomenon. The label covers

early in fact a dilemma between on the one hand/resettlement in third

waiting for

countries and on the other/repatriation to the country of origin.

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/Both