TNAG-1531-FCO40-2095-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-general-1987 — Page 131

HK 2 ANN

NOTE FOR FILE

VIETNAMESE

HKK 943/3

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

12 DEC 1986

REFUG

OFFICER

R

EY

Action Taken

STUDIES

914

Reference...

PROGRAMME:

HUMANE

DETERRENCE

1.

in

At 5 pm on

19 November I attended a Refugees Studies Programme seminar on Humane Deterrence led by Mr Dennis McNamara at the Queen Elizabeth House. McNamara has been known to me for several years.

He was UNHCR legal adviser for South East Asia from 1982 based until early 1983 in Hong Kong and thereafter Bangkok. He has latterly been

in

Geneva and is currently on a year-long sabbatical at Indo-Chinese refugee problem. I have always considered him one impressive UNHCR lawyers I have met and understand he

of the more

is highly regarded.

Summary of McNamara S talk

2.

the LSE writing a study of the

McNamara focussed exclusively on the Thai response to the Indo-Chinese refugee problem and also that of Hong Kong. He described briefly the history of the Indo-Chinese outflow, particularly from late 1978 with the out flow from Cambodia, and also of Sino-Vietnamese from Vietnam. He described the 1979 UN conference with its focus on burden-sharing (which was interpreted as third country resettlement and funding for places of first asylum on the basis that none were able to integrate substantial populations locally). He remarked that it was odd that the 1979 conference did not address any other potential solutions to the problem other than third country resettlement and also that it concentrated almost exclusively on boat refugees (Cambodia did not dose because of recognition problems and Laos was not invited).

altend

3.

a

in

were

further

agreement

August 1979 of illegal immigrants.

were achieved few repatriations

On

Thailand: At this point he went back to 1978 to explore earlier Thai attempts to establish a screening process of Lao arrivals in concert with UNHCR. He described how the initial establishment of screening in 1978 had led to a series of uncoordinated expulsions and consequently screening had been abandoned the same year.

In early 1979 there Thai/Lao discussions which led to an whereby Laos would accept the return the basis of this agreement during 1980. However arrivals from Laos continued, particularly from the lowlands and particularly "anchor" cases. The Thais in 1980 viewed the Lao and boat arrival problem as increasingly the product of a "pull factor" created by the attractions of third country resettlement.

UNHCR shared also Thai concerns that material conditions, in particularly in the

the Lao camps, were also beginning to attract arrivals across the

from Mekong Vientiane

to 1980 UNHCR/Bangkok proposed that screening be reintroduced for new Lao arrivals, on the basis that voluntary

was repatriation

and area;

resettlement remained

in

open

to

a

non-starter

as

the

UNHCR/HQ

long

as

all new arrivals continued.

CODE 18-77

AWO Ltd.

7/84