Journey of the Boat People

...4) finally, others ' All sides agree that enforcing the critetena tends to slow the processing UNHCR in essence is pleading, "Please take the stranded without any conditions ". Prior to the latest drive for resettlement committments, France had agreed to take 50,000 refugees, Australia 4,000, Canada 8,000 and others 8,000 As a result of the pressures created by the heavy flow of boat people, Canada has just increased its quota to 200 families per month, West Germany is taking 1,200 individuals, Greece, 50, the Netherlands, 60, Sweden, 250, and Israel 200 Apart from the desire to join their families, when asked why they have made the perilous flight, the response most often heard from the boat people is "to be free ". In Israel, Dr Tran-Quang Hoa, 34, who escaped with several colleagues after the Communist takeover of South Vietnam, is now training as a cardiac surgeon at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer He also told a Jerusalem Post reporter that he left to "get free,' and added "The Jews know what it's like to be exiled They know what it is to not be a free people, to escape from an oppressive government, only to find that no other country in the world wants you ". Dr Hoa seemed to be summing up the plight and the dubious prospects for many who have been waiting a long time on the Southeast Asian islands and on the South China Sea I asked the press officer for the Malaysian mission at the UN, M Muhamad, what he thought would be the end of the story for them "durable settlements," as the UNHCR puts it, or abandonment...

...Last month their plight was again sharply dramatized when 3,300 Vietnamese aboard the squalid freighter Huey Fong, at anchor for 29 days outside Hong Kong, were denied permission to land by the colonial government Many on board threatened suicide, and their captain (who faces imprisonment under Hong Kong law for carrying "unscheduled passengers") refused to move, even though food and other supplies were made available Ultimately, rough seas throughout the area prompted the authorities to relent, but the crowded Crown Colony already serves as a haven for 100,000 refugees from China and the newcomers cannot be kept indefinitely...

...John R Kelly, UNHCR's representative at Turtle Bay, cautions that it would be important to insure against the proposed island processing centers becoming "islands of abandoned refugees ' An Oxford-educated barrister who has long been involved with refugee assistance (in Bengal, Cyprus, Lebanon), Kelly continues "To avoid this, the scheme would appear to require guarantees that all refugees will in fact be resettled elsewhere, but such guarantees are not yet available ". Working with small field staffs at the existing camps, which are run by the host governments, UNHCR advances funds to house and feed the refugees Initially, it called the resettlement problem to the attention of all 151-member states Subsequently, it sent strong follow-ups to governments likely to cooperate in a substantial way, the United States being number one...

...We appreciate the UN effort...

...Gertrude Samuels reports regularly on the United Nations for this magazine...

...Since March 1971, with the advent of the boat people, the U S has been admitting 100 families per month from Indochina But the American field staff cooperating with UNHCR and ASEAN must follow four criteria for admission to the United States (1) First priority goes to refugees with close family ties in America, (2) next, those who worked for the U S government, (3) then, the high risk refugees (the politicals) who cannot return to their countries...

...According to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 89,500 new resettlement places have been offered by various countries over the last year-leaving approximately 50,000 people in limbo at present and causing anxiety about the additional 200,000 expected to need permanent homes before the year runs out...

...UNWELCOME VISITORS Journey of the Boat People BY GERTRUDE SAMUELS United Nations In the past several months a new term for one segment of desperate humanity, uprooted by wars and purges, has come into the international lexicon-the boat people " It describes tens of thousands of refugees, including whole families, from infants to grandparents, who since early 1978 have taken to vessels large and small to flee from both Communist Vietnam and the Soviet-backed Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea (Cambodia...

...at the close of the war in Vietnam, the United States evacuated some 13 5,000 Vietnamese...

...Our official position is that these are all political refugees," he said " As for their chances of emigrating, that depends on offers coming from receiving countries as soon as possible Those are crucial words-as soon as possible Because we expect (hat another couple of hundred thousand will try to come out...

...And it adequate offers .are not forthcoming...

...For besides the packed freighters, every day now dangerously overburdened small boats set out on the perilous journey from the Indochinese Peninsula in quest of safe refuge in countries bordering the South China Sea, some have even gone the distance to Australia Untold numbers of escapees never make it, dying of starvation or thirst or drowning on the way Horror tales of the survivors-of the secret flight from their homes and farms, the bribing of boat owners to secure spaces, the dreadful journey itself-are all too reminiscent of the fate of many stateless Jews during World War II...

...Japan 600 Other 400...

...The normal American quota system permits some 290,000 legal immigrants to enter the United States every year from around the world Exceptions are common, however, in areas of emergency More than 500,000 Cubans, for example, have come in under special arrangements from 1959 to date, and back in April 1975...

...Last December at a UNHCR-sponsored meeting of concerned governments held in Geneva, Malaysia, supported by other ASEAN members, proposed the establishment of one or several island centers where the refugees could gather, assuming guarantees that all would finally leave "Countries of first asylum would thus act only as staging posts ". Malaysia's Red Crescent Society was awarded the Nansen Medal m 1977 for humanitarian service, of late authorities there have been giving new arrivals supplies and ordering them to push off But this is not simply a case of sudden hard-heartedness Malaysia is a principal destination for the boat people, with better than 10,000 a month making the 300-mile voyage to the country despite the fact that more than 20,000 are today encamped on its island of Pulau Bidong under the most desperate conditions The problem is underscored by the latest UNHCR breakdown of boat people supposedly in transit...

...And those who survive find that their real problems are just beginning They are permitted ashore mostly on an "in transit" basis, pending resettlement elsewhere The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) does not adhere to UN conventions relating to the status of refugees, hence, beyond contributing to their upkeep-some $26 8 million during 1978-the UNHCR must find countries willing to provide a "durable solution" for the boat people...

...Muhamad hesitated, then answered quietly...

...Whatever their future, the boat people keep coming...

...Thailand is also caring for 139 000 Vietno mese and Kampucheans who arrived by land...

...but we really need more positive offers from Amenca and from the other countries...