Pressure on Malaysia

Press, 3 July 1979, Page 8

Pressure on Malaysia

NZPA-Reuter Kuala Lumpur

The British Foreign Secretary (Lord Carrington) said yesterday that he had expressed concern to the Malaysian Government about its policy of turning away refugees. But despite Lord Carrington’s approach, and a similar one by the French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr Olivier Stirn), there was no indication that Malaysia is prepared to soften its recent hardline policy. Malaysia has turned back or shipped out some 15,000 refugees since the Government announced on June 18 that it would accept no more, and that it might ship out refugees already in United Nations camps in Malaysia unless they were resettled elsewhere.

“I naturally expressed my concern about the Malaysian policy of turning refugees away.” Lord Carrington told reporters at the end of a two-day visit to Malaysia. But he said he understood

the problem Malaysia was facing with some 76,000 people in camps awaiting resettlement. He also said he viewed Malaysia’s proposal for refu-gee-processing centres outside South-East Asia as “a positive step that should be examined as quickly as possible.” In line with recent statements by the British Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret Thatcher), Lord Carrington said the only way to solve the refugee problem would be to prevail upon the Vietnamese Government to change its policies. He said, if the problem worsened, “The blame attaches wholly and solely to Vietnam.”

After a meeting with Lord Carrington, the Malaysian Acting "oreign Minister (Datuk Amar Abdul Taib Mahmud) reaffirmed that Malaysia would not be able to accept any more refugees until an international solution to the problem was found.

The French Hospital ship He de Lumiere is expected to pick up between 900 and 1350 Vietnamese refugees for permanent settlement in France when it makes its journey from the Pulau Bidong refugee camp to Singapore, French officials have said. An Associated Press staff photographer, has reported seeing police boats towing away about 700 Vietnamese refugees trying to land near Kuala Trengganu, 290 km northeast of Kuala Lumpur. Mr Stirn visited the hospital ship, sent by humanitarian organisations from France, on Sunday, and announced that when it made its journey from Pulau Bidong, 300 km north-east of Kuala Lumpur, to Singapore, 320 km south of the capital, any boat people picked up would be given automatic residence in France.

French officials yesterday said the ship would leave for Singapore in the next day or two.