TNAG-1528-FCO40-2092-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-general-1986 — Page 101

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Apart from direct movements to resettlement countries, 2,372 Indochinese refugees were transferred during April to the Refugee Processing Centre at Bataan, Philippines.

ICM DIRECTOR GENERAL VISITS KENYA

At the invitation of the Government, Director General James L. Carlin paid an official visit to Kenya from 19 to 23 April. Discussions centred on progress to date of the Return of Talent programme through which some 300 Kenyans have received ICM assistance to return from the industrialized world and contribute to the development process in their own country. Of these, 70 were persons in the highly skilled or professional categories.

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During his stay in Nairobi, the Director General met with Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi and presented him with a computer for use by the University of Nairobi's Faculty of Agriculture and returnees placed there with ICM assistance in furthering research on applied nutrition. Additional meetings were held with the Acting Foreign Minister, the Minister for Education, Science and Technology, and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, all of whom underscored the usefulness of the Return of Talent concept in meeting national development goals. It was agreed in principle that a regional seminar would be held in Nairobi later in the year to bring together representatives of governments and ICM officials for in-depth discussions of this issue in the African context. Possibilities for expanded programming, including intra-regional migration projects, also were touched

upon.

Prior to his departure, the Director General attended a round-table luncheon with over a dozen returnees and an equal number of representatives from the press, radio and television. The resulting frank, informal discussions further highlighted the success of the Return of Talent programme and elicited considerable interest in ICM in the media.

Kenya, ICM's first African member State, joined the organization in May 1985. The ICM office in Nairobi, in close collaboration with the Government of Kenya, other international governmental and non-governmental organizations, and diplomatic representatives of member States, carries out a full range of activities in the fields of refugee resettlement processing in addition to the Return of Talent programme.

DIRECTOR OF LATIN AMERICAN PROGRAMMES VISITS THE U.S. AND CANADA

The Director of the Department for Latin American Programmes recently visited Washington, New York and Ottawa. In Washington, he participated with the Chief of the ICM Buenos Aires Mission in an ICM/Organization of American States Coordination Meeting. On this occasion, cooperation between the organizations in areas of research, technical cooperation and training was reviewed and new activities were planned.

Both officers then travelled to New York, where they met UNDP's Regional Director for the Latin American Bureau. In Ottawa, the Director of Latin American Programmes visited the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). He was received by the Director of Cooperation for South America, with whom ICM's activities in Latin America were discussed.