TNAG-1530-FCO40-2094-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-general-1986 — Page 8

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

one of them but increasingly if one wishes really to get to the point

2 where the whole refugee situation could be slightly eased even before

3 being really brought under control, one has certainly to try to pursue

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at the same time four different types of solution. One, I already

5 spoke about it, is voluntary repatriation and in so many situation

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and instances to be found in the world further to initial crisis is

the voluntary repatriation then back home. This being said, you always will find a few people who for obvious reasons are not in a position to go back. These people ought rapidly to be resettled. In addition

there are also possibility to integrate locally refugees and this, for

instance, has happened and is happening today in quite a few African

countries, especially where I would say the family links or tribal

links lead to the fact that the same people are to be found on both

14 sides of the border. In this respect one should not also forget what

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has been undertaken by China in '79 and which was the reason of my

16 visit to this country, where some 280,000 people from Indo-China have 17 actually been reintegrated in five provinces. So that I would say 18 repatriation, resettlement, integration, are basically the issues and 19 the type of solution one has to look into. Then, as I said, if one 20 gets all three to work, possibly at the same time, and not to be seen

to be at work one after the other one certainly can ease the whole

situation inflicted on the country of first asylum who have in large

numbers to give asylum for a few months or increasingly for a few

24 years to a large number of people.

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Now in this country of first asylum precisely it is very 27 important to make sure that refugees don't become total destitutes, 28 since here one has also to remember and experience time and again is 29 pointing to the fact that if someone has just to hold out his hand

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30 to get a bowl of rice or yam he needs every day, very rapidly he feels

that he is no longer a human being as such, that he is losing his own dignity, and hence when time will come for him to benefit from another 33 solution, especially to be allowed to go back home, he might find it 34 difficult or might even refuse since here too that kind of return or 35 resettlement in a third country is to restart new lives, to have the 36 courage to do so. Very often it is very difficult, so that we have

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