TNAG-1425-FCO40-1908-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 39

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JJ

6.

The Tamil Nadu government had provided some food aid. UNHCR had made no official visit to the province but had been contacted by indigenous Tamil voluntary agencies. The Indian Government had not yet responded to an offer of

assistance from UNHCR.

5.2 Situation in Sri Lanka for Tamil Returnees

Martin Barber (BRC) said that over the last 2 months two groups of Tamil refugees had been returned from Europe. European governments were increasingly concerned to prevent arrivals. At the UN Human Rights Conference an Argentinian motion concerning the Human Rights situation in Sri Lanka had failed to be debated due to the lack of another government to second the motion. European governments would not second the motion, as to admit to a human rights problem in Sri Lanka might prevent them from returning refugees. This raised a question on the ability of European countries to maintain their traditional obligations towards granting asylum. There were 400-500 Tamil Refugees in the UK on Temporary Admission, on whose status the Home Office had still not decided.

Irene Khan (UNHCR) said the criteria for admission to the UK for Tamils were very restrictive, even more so than for other groups.

It was agreed the committee would continue to monitor the situation, and to support UNHCR policy that asylum-seekers should not be refouled (and to ensure that there was no repetition of the incidents at Amsterdam and Zurich airports).

It was agreed the Chairman would write to the UN High Commissioner for refugees expressing concern and offering support.

SITUATION IN VIETNAM

Roger Newton (Oxfam) who had recently returned from Vietnam gave a talk, accompanied by slides, on the situation in Vietnam and on Oxfam's work there (his notes to the talk are attached). He said that Vietnam was very poor, though the north was much poorer than the south. Much of the country's infastructure had been destroyed in the war. Hanoi's population had grown ten times since independence yet the water and sewage facilities had remained the same, and housing conditions were appalling.

Oxfam was working with the Committee for the Reception of Foreign Aid, a relatively non-political body, who advised on how Oxfam should spend money in Vietnam. In 1981 Oxfam had started working with food relief. They were also working with medical clinics, which were based on a preventative model. Medicine was scarce and its distribution erratic and many home grown medicines were used. Most of the doctors who had been in the south had now left the country. Another Oxfam project to rechannel a river and rebuild dykes had 2,000 people working on it.

Kathleen Bagen (CAFOD) said that many people who had moved to Saigon during the war were reluctant to move back to the country.

The New Ecomonic Zones she had seen were very bad, though she believed they varied from province to province. Following a recent visit she had written an evaluation on constraints to development in Vietnam. Amongst these constraints were: The military threat from China and the Khmer Rouge, isolation from other countries, particularly the ASEAN group, the drain of many professional and skilled people, the large foreign debt and shortage of foreign exchange. She believed aid from countries outside Eastern Europe should be extended, particularly