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obtained acceptance by a "host country" and be in possession of a Vietnamese exit permit. The Vietnamese authorities are selective in issuing these permits and usually refuse them for certain categories such as soldiers and conscripts, highly educated people, former internees of "reeducation" camps (or those with relatives in such camps) and those facing trial. The United ? Kingdom representative to the UNHCR recently expressed deep
concern at the 42nd Session about "The Vietnamese Government's
denial of the freedom to leave the country to many thousands of Vietnamese who wish to emigrate legally to join their families, already living abroad". In January 1986 the Vietnamese authorities effectively halted the ODP by ordering officials of resettlement countries to stop interviewing applicants for emigration purportedly because of dissatisfaction with the way in which Western countries were operating the programme. This action has led to speculation that Vietnam may shift her stance on the whole refugee question after the 6th Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party, to be held in December 1986.
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The rate of resettlement of Indochinese refugees has declined over the past two years as the focus of international concern has shifted to Africa and its problems. There is also a growing reluctance among resettlement countries to accept those
they do not carded to whose st whose status does not conform to the definition as contained in the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, ie. a person who is outside the country of his nationality "owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality,
membership of a particular social group or political opinion" and
is unable or unwilling tg. seek his own country's protection.
There is s(increasing awareness that many recent departures from
Indochina were motivated by economic factors particularly in the
case of North Vietnamese who have lived most of their lives,
without persecution, in a Communist society.
Rescue at sea
Between 1978-81, 20 per cent of the refugees reaching countries of first asylum, disembarked from ships which had
rescued them. The British Government decided in 1978 that
/refugees
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