TNAG-1796-FCO40-2556-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation--including-Opera-1988 — Page 133

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CONFIDENTIAL

3. The UNHCR would expect to establish the repatriation programme

in consultation with the Vietnamese authorities and to exercise

general supervision over it. This supervision would include the

direct monitoring of the conditions under which returning boat

people were received back into the community. The actual provision

of assistance would be a matter for the voluntary organisations.

4.

The UNHCR would no doubt prefer to see a resolution of the

general problem of boat people in the region through a multilateral

repatriation programme covering other first asylum places besides

Hong Kong. We believe that they might be prepared to consider a

smaller pilot programme involving only returnees from Hong Kong if

this could be started in advance of programmes with other places of first asylum. But this is looking progressively less likely: the

Malaysians have themselves now completed a first round of

discussions with the Vietnamese and events seem destined to move

into multilateral channels.

Financial implications of a Repatriation Programme

5.

The UNHCR envisage that reintegration assistance would largely be given in kind. Most returnees would be going back to rural

areas. They might receive a "kit" comprising rice, agricultural tools and domestic equipment. Further assistance might be given to

the communities to which the returnees were going back: examples are

the construction of dispensaries or village schools. Those

returning to an urban background would probably need a cash

hand-out. In hard currency terms this would be small suggest US$500 to $800 for a family depending on the number of family members. The UNHCR envisage that the cost of an initial

programme would not exceed US$5 million for the first year. Details

of costing and the initial number of beneficaries would be worked

out between UNHCR and the Vietnamese Government.

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the UNHCR

6. It is too early to estimate the number of boat people likely to

be involved or the years over which the contributions are likely to

be made. At present there are 9,000 potential returnees in Hong

Kong. The total population of boat people elsewhere in the region

CONFIDENTIAL