TNAG-1911-FCO40-2715-Financial-assistance-from-the-UK-Government-to-Vietnamese-re-1989 — Page 126

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through UNHCR, became more attractive as the boat people realise

that they have no real option but to return);

(b) assistance to the communities to which people would return, to be handled if possible via British voluntary agencies

such as Oxfam or Save the Children;

(c) programme aid (whether or not linked in some way to the

Support Group-type operation which the French are seeking to put in place), perhaps with counterpart funds tied to projects of assistance to the communities to which people would return.

Our present view is that we should to the extent possible seek to move away from a capitation payment towards more general

assistance to the communities concerned, and that the NGO route

in particular should be explored further. (The programme aid option raises wider issues in view of the reaction of the US to

the French initiative). One advantage of using NGOs would be that they might also be willing to assist in monitoring the

condition of those who return; we would have to be prepared to include an element for the cost of monitoring, but this should be

relatively minor. We would reserve as our final offer a sum of

£5 million (including NGO costs) for community-related assistance, to be drawn down over at least the period covered by the programme of repatriation. However, we may expect the Vietnamese to press for continuation of the capitation arrangements and we would need to keep in view the possibility that we will need to take up the balance of the £4 million referred to above (which would cover about 10,000 refugees) for this purpose in the context of an overall agreement.

I am therefore seeking up to an extra £5 million for this

aspect of the problem.

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