TNAG-1535-FCO40-2099-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation-1986 — Page 33

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DSR 11C

CONFIDENTIAL

however, have effectively rejected voluntary

repatriation, apart from a few individual cases,

and have sentenced some returnees to terms of

"reeducation".

The new UN High Commissioner for k

Refugees, Mr Hoche, said in Hong Kong in September

1986 he considered voluntary repatriation to be the

"natural solution", but stressed that bis this

depended on the creation of conditions under which

people would freely choose to go back, and which

would guarantee their safety to do so.

(iii) Resettlement.

The United States has accepted by

far the largest total, over 800,000, comprising

those fleeing the initial débacles of 1975,

refugees resettled from places of first asylum, and

those emigrating under the Orderly Departure

Programme. France, Canada and Australia have taken

over 100,000 each. The UK has taken 19,500.

4. According to UNHCR figures there were at the end of

1985 some 150,000 refugees in the various camps of the

countries and territories of first asylum in the region.

Of these, Thailand, with its contiguous land borders,

hardest pressed. It has some 125,000 people formally

recognised as refugees (including some 90,000 Lao).

maddition

s/some

Thailand also has/some 230,000 Cambodians who have not

been formally classified as refugees but as displaced

is

persons, whom the Thai intend to return to Cambodia when

conditions there permit. International assistance to

these has been coordinated through the UN Border Relief

CONFIDENTIAL