New homes for Vietnamese

Press, 1 December 1978, Page 12

New homes for Vietnamese

The number of people leaving IndoChina has increased to about 10.000 a month and the flow shows no sign of ebbing. About 40.000 are in camps in Malaysia; about 140,000 are in camps in Thailand. Several thousand Vietnamese are at sea aboard vessels that have somehow gathered up people from Vietnam’s shores.

The effects of the bad floods in Vietnam, the economic changes in the south of Vietnam, the atrocities inflicted on people in Cambodia by the Cambodian authorities, the conflicts between China and Vietnam and between Cambodia and Vietnam all contribute to the movement. General discontent with either the new form of government or their standard of living has no doubt persuaded many to leave Vietnam. Some, perhaps most of them, have had to pay for their passages or have paid officials to turn a blind eye to the exodus. Whether bribes or fares have been paid may not be the point that determines whether these migrants should be called refugees. Yet the point cannot be overlooked. So many are now coming out of the country that it is difficult to avoid believing that the authorities in Vietnam are conniving in the departures, if not actually encouraging them.

Vietnamese in the camps in Thailand and Malaysia are reported to be upset by the fact that those now arriving in the ships receive more attention and are likely to be resettled sooner. The dramatic events associated with the 2500 people aboard the Hai Hong seem to bear out the complaints of those in the camps. The offers that have been made from France, Canada, and a West German state in particular, to take passengers off the Hai Hong may resolve the problem. One hundred and sixty of the 604 people whom Canada plans to take are already in their new

home. One report had France offering to take 1000 and the Premier of Lower Saxony said that 1000 could be resettled there.

The New Zealand Cabinet is expected to decide on Monday whether this country should absorb more IndoChinese. Since April, 1975, when Saigon became a Communist city, New Zealand has taken 542 Vietnamese refugees. Of these 112 came directly as a result of the change of Government in Saigon; 412 came in the airlifts last year and were taken from among people who had left Vietnam by boat and reached camps in Thailand and Malaysia. Another 18 were sponsored refugees. Refugees from Vietnam outnumbered refugees from all other parts of the world in the same period. New Zealand accepted 442 others, 250 of them Chileans, 135 Soviet Jews, and 30 East Europeans. Some 27 handicapped people were among those accepted, and such people may have found resettlement elsewhere difficult. The acceptance of 600 more from Indo-China—a figure which has been suggested—would be a worth-while gesture; The international gestures made by several countries to take people leaving Indo-China may alleviate the problem but they cannot solve it. The flow of migrants is exceeding the rate at which countries are offering to absorb them. The great burden falls on Thailand and Malaysia, and the sorry incident this week in which some people coming in ships were stoned by Malaysians may be an unhappy warning about future events. Little can be achieved about stopping the outflow of people unless Hanoi co-operates. While it is to this end that international efforts will have to be directed, even this course may not be the greatest kindness to people who are reluctant to remain citizens of Vietnam.