Refugee help sought

Press, 12 February 1979, Page 6

Refugee help sought

NZPA Kuala Lumpur The Malaysian Government is looking to New ZeaI land to support new moves to establish a special refugee haven from which resettlement can be carried out. Top Malaysian officials made it clear that they believed the need for finding an island base to carry out the processing of refugees for despatch to new homes was urgent.

They said that in the coming weeks the Government of the Prime Minister, Mr Hussein Onn, would make an effort to gain local and world support for the setting up of the base.

These officials said they, were grateful for the sympathy the idea had . received in a discussion at a recent international conference on refugees in Geneva, but that now urgent action was required to translate this sympathy into action.

They were grateful that New Zealand had shown a willingness to accept refugees who had spent several months in camps on the Malaysian coast without being able to meet the criteria for

resettlement set by other countries.

Officials at the New Zealand High Commission said they expected that New Zealand immigration officials would visit Malaysia next month to select refugees for resettlement. New Zealand had announced it would take 300 from Malaysia early this year. The refugees selected would probably be flown through Hong Kong to Auckland.

“There are two points we would like urgent action on,” said a senior official in the Prime Minister’s department. "The first is the establishment of this resettlement base on an island in the area, and the second is a dropping of acceptance criteria by many Of the countries taking refugees.” He said the flow of refugees from Vietnam to Malaysia had eased from the peak flows which reached about 10,000 in December and November. Last month almost 5000 arrived in Malaysia. “But the number being resettled does not match the

inflow. The average take-out each month has been about 25 to 30 per cent of the number arriving. Last month we achieved a 50 per cent ratio — 4800 in and 2400 out. But this is unusual.”

He said there were still 546 people on board the freighter Hai Hong, which brought 3000 refugees to Kelang, near Kuala Lumpur, last December. The refugees were still awaiting processing before being taken to the United States. The official said that since 1975, 76,000 refugees from Vietnam had reached Malaysia. About 20,000 had been taken in by poor countries.

“As you can see from these figures, unless there is a big improvement in the take-out rate we will have to cope with this problem for a long time. “We cannot afford to take more refugees, except on the strongest humanitarian grerunds. Our people in the areas of the camps have be- ! come very restive. "We do not want to see our efforts to restructure, our society affected.”