TNAG-1793-FCO40-2553-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation--including-Opera-1988 — Page 18

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

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حمد اسمها

Comp.ebensive

*pproach for dealing realistically with the current distressing complexities Southeast Asia. We need to refine а dynamic long-term strategy of ser-related components and find the collective political will, patience and Leadfastness to pursue it, because sadly there is no simple or quick fix.

Our basic course is to employ policies to discourage clandestine departures from Vietnam and to maintain resettlement offtake of eligible groups in order to keep to tolerable levels the total first asylum population until changes in regional security and stability take place enabling repatriation and a natural reduction in outflows.

In this context, the following issues must be addressed:

the maintenance of first asylum,

the root causes of the outflow of asylum seekers,

new measures of humane deterrence,

resettlement,

the Orderly Departure Program,

voluntary repatriation,

long-stayers, and

care and protection of the displaced Khmer.

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Let me be clear at the outset that the preservation of first asylum for refugees including their care and humane treatment remains our foremost concern, our first principle. Its future will require the creative energy of parties members of the international community to explore alternatives which can achieve a delicate balance between protecting humanitarian principta and providing relief for first asylum nations

the various

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As we all recognize, the dire refugee problems of the region are rooted not in the first asylum countries, but in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and this is where they must ultimately be solved. Concerted diplomatic effort is needed to convince these refugee-generating countries to take appropriate political, soci、 and economic measures to allow their countrymen to live productive lives in their homelands. Our ASEAN friends, especially, have a role to play in this regard. We do not advocate repressive approaches or prohibitions against clandestine departure, which would in any case not be effective. Nor do we realistically expect diplomatic pressures to have an immediate effect by themselves. But over time the authorities in the Indochinese states must come to realize the political and

the political and diplomatic costs they, run in ignoring their social and economic responsibilities to their own people.

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