CONFIDENTIAL
UNHCR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: GENEVA 6-16 OCTOBER 1986
Item 6(g): Indo-Chinese refugees
Background
1. Since the Communist take-overs in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in
1975, some 1.7m Indo-Chinese have fled those countries. The exodus
reached its peak in 1978, when 200,000 refugees arrived in Thailand alone. Others fled following the Vietnamese invasions of Cambodia
in 1978. Many of those fleeing Vietnam have left by boat, the
Khmers and the Lao overland.
2. There are still over 155,000 refugees from Indo-China in places
of first asylum in the region, awaiting resettlement. Some 120,000
of these are land refugees, 35,000 boat refugees. Thailand has the
largest case load totalling almost 130,000 (over 90,000 Laotions,
almost 30,000 Cambodians and 7,000 Vietnamese, largely boat people).
The rate of departure of Vietnamese fleeing their country has
continued to decline: some 22,000 arrived in the area by boat from
Vietnam in 1985 (25,000 in 1984, 30,000 in 1983, 42,000 in 1982).
The rate of arrival of Lao in Thailand has slowed markedly since the
introduction of "screening" to separate refugees from "economic migrants".
3. On the Thai/Cambodian border there is a population of some
240,000 Khmers who are not eligible for resettlement. These are the
responsiblity of the UN Border Relief Operation (UNBRO). We,
together with other donors, fund international relief on the
Thai/Cambodian border (UK contributed a record £1.35m in 1985, and a
total of around £13m since 1975). Problems on the Thai/Cambodian
border were exacerbated during 1984 as a result of the 1984-85
Vietnamese dry season offensive, when most of the civilian refugee population was forced over the border into Thailand. Many of them
are now housed in the largest single concentration of refugees in
Thailand and the second largest Khmer settlement in the world (after
Phom Penh): site II, current population around 140,000.
CONFIDENTIAL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.