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CH00688
INDOCHINESE REFUGEE SITUATION FRAMEWORK FOR THE PURSUIT OF DURABLE SOLUTIONS.
Background
The present structure of the international response to the Indochinese refugee situation arose from the arrangements set in place to deal with the unprecedented outflows from Indochina in 1978 and early 1979. The arrangements then entered into were seen as essentially short term. In order to encourage first refuge countries to adopt generous policies on admission of asylum seekers and, in particular, to end widespread loss of life through acts of refoulement, Western nations pledged unprecedented levels of resettlement. Many of these pledges were limited in terms of time or numbers or both.
Some seven years on, this emergency response has formalized into an ongoing resettlement program with no conclusion in view. It has become an assumption in many quarters that any Indochinese who reaches a country of first refuge will eventually be resettled.
For some time now it has been apparent that resettlement programs have become an intrinsic part of the Indochinese problem, simultaneously alleviating the consequences of the outflow and helping to perpetuate that outflow. It is true that there remain many factors within the countries of Indochina provoking ongoing clandestine departures. Persecution of selected individuals continues. Some minority groups remain under official disfavour. For the population as a whole, the level of economic development remains painfully low.
What is clear, however, is that many of those currently leaving the Indochinese countries have experienced conditions no worse than those faced by the inhabitants of a wide range of third world countries and that they would not have attempted to depart had they not known of the existence of third country resettlement programs.
The dilemma now facing the international community is simple to analyse if not to resolve. The Indochinese outflow now includes both refugees fleeing persecution and migrants seeking a better way of life. Notwithstanding some modification at the margins, our various programs,
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