Vietnam drastically cuts refugee flow

Press, 17 August 1979, Page 6

Vietnam drastically cuts refugee flow

NZPA-Reuter Hanoi Vietnam has drastically cut the number of refugees leaving by boat, and diplomats in Hanoi bellieve it may continue to do so indefinitely. The flow of “boat people,” whose arrival in their thousands alarmed SouthEast Asian countries earlier this year, has been slowed to a trickle with an efficiency ithat has taken few people in i the Vietnamese capital by i surprise. I “They are very good at 'stopping people,” one foreign said. | The numbers have dropped ; because of an extensive coastal patrol operation, say some diplomats and refugee officials. Others believe it was done through a Government policy decision which put a swift end to escapes organised by officials. Whatever the cause, and it may be a combination of several, including unfavourable weather for boat escapes, the Vietnamese authorities apparently decided to cut the flow about a month before the Geneva conference on Indo-Chinese refugees last month. Vietnam pledged at the conference to try to halt the refugee outflow for a reasonable period. How long this will last may depend on the success of a programme arranged in

conjunction witn uie United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees under which orderly departures by air will replace risky voyages on the high seas. Vietnam maintains that it compels no-one to leave and forces no-one to stay. But it now insists that all departures should be organised legally under this programme aimed at people who have entry visas for other countries. The question remains ! whether Vietnam can and will continue to curb the outflow of people from the rigidly controlled and desperately poor country. Vietnamese officials indicated to an American Congressional delegation visiting Hanoi recently that the policy would continue beyond the reasonable period promised at Geneva. Diplomats say they believe the tap will stay turned off for two main reasons. One is that the refugee flood had an adverse effect on Vietnam’s relations with some of the South-East Asian countries which were the destination of the bulk of the boat people, especially Indonesia and Malaysia. According to United Nations figures, more than 100,000 boat people arrived in Asian countries in search of temporary asylum in May and June. The influx prompted threats of tough

action against the refugees, and angry allegations that Vietnam had expelled them or had organised their escape. Vietnam has recently been anxious to counter active Chinese diplomacy in SouthEast Asia since the monthlong border war with China this year. Another reason is that Vietnam may have felt the pressure of hostile international opinion over the exodus, and feared this might give China an excuse to go to war again. It is uncertain whether these reasons will outweigh Vietnam’s apparent desire to be rid of those people who cannot adapt to the new system since the unification of the country and efforts to change the social and economic structure of the South. Many are ethnic Chinese. “It is to Vietnam’s advantage that people who desperately want to leave should go. Then the authorities could seriously begin to rebuild the South in the way of their heart’s desire,” one diplomat said. However, Mr Nhuyen Co Taach, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said last week that Vietnam was doing its utmost to cut the flow, but that to stop it entirely would be difficult “as you have difficulty to check up the crimes in New York City.”