TNAG-1529-FCO40-2093-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-general-1986 — Page 32

ANNEX C

POLICY EVALUATION

: AID TO INDO-CHINESE REFUGEES IN THAILAND

(A preliminary and incomplete study)

Background

1. Since the Communist take-overs in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in 1975, some 1.7m Indo-Chinese have fled those countries. The exodus reached its peak in 1978, when 200,000 refugees arrived in Thailand alone.

2. In response to the crisis, a conference was held in Geneva in 1979 at which the international community resolved that there should be a world-wide sharing of the burden, covering both resettlement and support within the region. At that conference, the UK pledged £5 million, together with resettlement places for 10,000 Indo-Chinese refugees. Besides the UK's general commitment to the principles affirmed at the conference, British interests were directly involved through the burden placed on Hong Kong as a place of first asylum for Vietnamese fleeing by boat. Since 1979, the UK, in common with others, has kept up its efforts to help solve the problem of Indo-Chinese refugees through:

(a) financial support for international and voluntary

organisations (total aid to date £12.5 million); (b) help with the resettlement of refugees (20,000 up to

1986, with a further 14,500 displaced Indo-Chinese absorbed into Hong Kong); and

(c) maintaining pressure in search of an overall solution

to the Indo-China problem, caused by Vietnam's

oppressive policies and the illegal occupation of

Cambodia.

3. Thailand has borne the brunt of the flood of refugees,

Thailand is also with over 600,000 arrivals since 1975.

the "front line state" in ASEAN's stand against Vietnamese expansionist policies. In 1984/85, the burden placed on Thailand was increased by the arrival of some 230,000