PEOPLE

Thc Bwt People
1
demand, particularly from church groups and specially formed
interest groups, to take more Indo-Chinese refugees, a demand the
government is finding increasingly difficult to resist. New
Zealanders seem to appreciate that, in this caw, as a near ncighbwt,
their country has special responsibilities.
Until mid-1977 most of the Viemamew settled in New Zealand
had been associated with the country during the Victnam war, such
as embassy staff or students granted asylum. Rut in Mmy 1977, the
UNHCR appealed to New Zmlsnd to take some boat people and the
government agreed, provided they held UN status as refugees and
had 'oceupatim qualifieatims useful to New Zealand'.
By January 1978, 535 Indo-Chinese had entercd New Zealand,
mainly in two big airlifts. They were settled largely through the
tffons of the inter-church commission on immigration, the traditional
agent for refugee remlement. The government declined to
more until it had seen how the first groups had settled, By
t&e
October, the inter-church commission had compiled a report outlining
the success of resettlment and recommending an increase. In
Dccembcr, the government announced it would take 600 during
1979, Early in July 1979, rwo brothers, Hugo and Bill Manson, both
expcrienccd television journalists, wrote to all the counay's 230 local
authorities asking them to indicate the willingness of their communities
to support a refugee family. The Mansons suggested a mtio
of one refugee for every thousand citizens, or a total of about 3200
Indo-Chinese. Within two months, with more than hmlf the councils'
replies returned, 80 per cent had indicated support.
Prcssure on the government came from other sources, including
the AN states and New Zealand's ANZUS colleagues, the United
States and Ausmlia. By he timc the Geneva conference was held
in July 1979, the government had agreed r take 3235 refugees {or
one for every 927 of the population), but spread over two yean, 'The
government is being cautious to the point of cruelty,' said Hugo
Manson. Officials defended government policy, arguing that the
qualiry of sponsors, not just the quantity, had to be taken into
account. One official asked: 'What about the African nations? Why
have they not taken any?' The government argued further that its
selection policies were humanitarian: age or youth of refugees was
not a barrier to acceptance and not only skilled people were sought.
A auu'ws approach would create the necessary favowable public
climate.
The only refugee reception ma in New Zealand is at were
in South Auckland, where the newcomers spmd their first month
in medical checks, cultural orientation nnd language coumes. An
experimental community -based rcsmlement program in Rotom,
on Nonh Island, is planned. But there a p m to be growing opinion
that more refugm should be taken and that another reception camp
should be opened. The Mmon brothers may yet have their way.
Nguym Phi, foq-two, with his wife and six children, was put
of Ncw Zealand's h t intake of boat pple. On arrival his only pa+
sessions were the dothea he wore. He had taken a teica camera and
lenses with him from Viemam but had sold them in a Malaysian
refugee camp to buy fd. This war his second time as a refugee.
He had already fled from Hanoi to tfie south in 1955, after the Gencva
agreements. This timc hc was leaving behind the rtsuh of his
succwsful wtlemmt in the south: a house, a car, and nvo ice-m
factorits, employing eighteen people. The main reason for fleeing
was what the Phi family dcsaibe as 'pressure' - such as having to
attend daily meetings organized by the communists, and having to
do 'voluntav' work,
Other refugees dm'hd huw their busintsscs nnd prom were
confiscated. A Saigon man said he had lost a family bakery, a cattle
farm and an orchard in May 1978. He had been sent to a 'new emnomic
zone' where it was too barren to d e P living. A 37-ymr-old
former lieutenant commander in he south Vietnamese navy went
through a 're-education' camp 150 lcilometres north of Saigw, where
work occupied the days, and meetings the evenings. 'The hardest
thing was that we had to denounce our sins and the sins of our
parents and grandparents. We had to denounce them as memben
of the capitalist clwcs!
While New Zealand has den fewer Indo-Chinese refuges than,
according to some of its citizens, it could, all those who have come
have &en wttlrd successfully The government says it how8 no
examples of failure: this in iaclf is a succesr in human terms,
Japan
Since the fall of Saigon, 2860 Indo-Chinese refugees have made