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only on continued Vietnamese co-operation over resolving the boat people issue but also on withdrawal of their troops from Cambodia, as part of a comprehensive political settlement in that country.
5.
But what does emerge from the above material is that if we are to go ahead with the involuntary repatriation of non-refugees to Vietnam, credible monitoring of their conditions is essential if we are to win the acceptance of the international community and, more specifically, American acquiescence in the programme.
The Options
6. Monitoring could be carried out by:
7.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
British Embassy Hanoi staff, perhaps assisted by:
An Officer seconded to Hanoi from Hong Kong;
The UNHCR;
NGOS: perhaps a representative from the British Refugee
Council, Oxfam or Save the Children;
Another international body such as the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration (ICM);
f) Some form of Independent Consultant.
British Embassy Staff: It is important to keep open the option of periodic monitoring by our Embassy in Hanoi, despite the
fact that it would be difficult to convince the outside world of
our impartiality. A possible safeguard would be to arrange that each monitoring 'visit' includes the participation of a representative of the media (media coverage of conditions of those who have returned has so far been positive), but this might carry a danger of backfiring.
8. The Secretary of State has said that it would be important to reinforce the Embassy in Hanoi so that when news of the first
repatriation of non-volunteers breaks, he will be in a position to
state that the Embassy has been (or is being) reinforced in order to ensure that effective monitoring of returnees takes place. Even if
we are able to persuade some other organisation to become involved
in monitoring, the Embassy will need to be able to play a
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