subsistence on charity. To my mind UNHCR must place the highest priority on voluntary repatriation, which remains the natural solution to any refugee problem. I welcome the reiteration of this principle in the Conclusions of the Thirty-Sixth Session of this Committee, and pledge that UNHCR will play its part by promoting conditions which could permit voluntary repatriation by keeping alive the will of the refugees to return. This emphasis is reflected, for instance, in our revised approach to programme planning, whereby UNHCR projects will no longer be designed in a manner that might discourage eventual repatriation. Where repatriation is not possible, or not voluntary, UNHCR must and will defend the refugees' right to remain in exile. If asylum-seekers have valid reasons for not wanting to return to their countries of origin they must receive humanitarian treatment. Here UNHCR must attach equal importance to the three other solutions possible in these situations: local integration in the country of first asylum (the solution which has been applied in so exemplary a fashion in Africa), resettlement (the solution which has benefited from so many remarkable humanitarian efforts for Indo-Chinese in the last decade) and, until one of these is viable, a degree of self-reliance in the countries of first asylum.
13. I have already shared with you in June my belief that UNHCR must react to existing and new refugee crises with a three-pronged approach that combines effective emergency response, the prompt establishment of basic services (health, sanitation, education), and early action to establish income- generating activities which will promote refugee self-reliance. These measures have to be initiated as rapidly as possible and, to the extent practicable, simultaneously, in the interests of both refugees and host countries. For emergency survival assistance alone contributes little of durable value to the country of asylum and barely alleviates the strains imposed by the presence of refugees yet it remains the most expensive kind of assistance. This approach is entirely consistent with the concerns about infrastructure and related development in asylum countries which have been voiced in recent years, most notably at the Second International Conference on Assistance to Refugees in Africa. My Office will seek to reaffirm and reinforce the connection between refugee aid and development. One means of doing so is to further develop our co-operation with UNDP - with which we are involved, for instance, in joint efforts in Uganda - and with the World Bank, which has recently extended its refugee income-generation project in Pakistan. We are engaged in discussions with both these agencies as well as with bilateral development agencies regarding possible co-operation in a number of additional projects for developing countries affected by the presence of large numbers of refugees. Such co-operation would also help UNHCR to plan its programmes more rationally.
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I do not want to move from the topic of lasting solutions without taking heart from the noteworthy progress we have witnessed lately in this area. One hears so much these days about the ever-increasing phenomenon of refugee flows and the apparently perpetually mounting numbers. Yet not enough is said about the spontaneous repatriations from the Sudan both to Uganda and to the Ethiopian province of Tigray, nor about the beginnings of repatriation from Somalia to Ethiopia, nor indeed about the return of Latin Americans from their exile to Argentina, Uruguay and, even to some extent, to Chile. I myself have just returned from a visit to East Asia, and I could not help being struck by the remarkable fact that though some 150,000 refugees remain on our hands in that region, over 1 million others have found new lives.
It is of course a tribute to the international community that it placed the means and the resources at UNHCR's disposal to achieve such solutions. I can only
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