States would be
able to accept many thousands of immigrants
We are
annually as well as refugees under current ceilings.
currently working through the UNHCR to restart the program and
expand it. An expanded ODP would preclude dangerous escapes by
relatives and others who now have little hope of departing
normally, and would lighten the burden of Thailand and other
asylum countries in the region who must accommodate
escapees in local camps.
first
these
As for Laos, we are hopeful that there, too, legal and orderly
emigration will become a routinely recognised right.
Fourth, the United States supports voluntary repatriation
and hopes in this regard that UNHCR's modest success in
encouraging voluntary return to Laos can be expanded. We also
efforts,
7
support Thailand's Lao screening program
and have just
contributed $200,000 to UNHCR to help fund it. In the year since
Lao screening began, recorded Lao arrivals in Thailand have
decreased to 400 per month from more than 1,020 per month the
previous year.
What has yet to occur is the return of those Lao
judged not to be refugees, some 1,200 of whom have now
A
accumulated in Thai holding areas near the Lao border.
much hope that agreement can be reached with the Lao
to begin receiving these people back.
We very
Government
the United States believes that the so-called
Fifth,
refugee populations
in
"residual
Thailand and elsewhere remain an
international obligation, and that an essential part of this
obligation is the vigorous application of all three forms of
durable solutions including the provision of resettlement places
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