PEOPLE

was dismnible, qmially in Hong Kong and the MAN aapitalr.
,',,,
'
This would bt ten times the flow of boat pplt between 1975 and
1979; nlthwgh the figure is only a guess - and fails to take account ':
of thcee who might be aught or lost at sea - it nevertheless should ' ,
give evqone pause, Perhaps, indeed, that is why Viemam
officials usc it.
It is poasiblc that Hanoi could k persueded to 'scatter' this group
of potential rdugats, by pushing some into China, some to Thdhd
through Kampuchea, some into rc-cducation camps, NEZS and prcventiw
detention, rs well as ejming mmt onto the high seas. Even
so, the pmpca is daunting ftom the vantage point of the countries
of ht asylum in Asia.
By late Stptrmber 1979, the reduction in the number of boat
pple leaving Vicmam had providad EI welcome breathing space for
, '
counerb of first asylum and for resettlement countries out~ide the
region. The WHCR conference in July achieved its aim of doubling , ,
the number of resettlement places on offer for refugees seeking pcr- I
, '
ment asylum in third countries, from 125000 to 260 000. In the
weeks following the meting the pace of resettlement from the : Eon-
I
gestcd and inmitary camps in Asia was accelerated, easing the .': , ',
pressures on most ASEM countries a litflc. In Malaysia, for example, ,,
the Inddhincse refugee popuiat ion fell from 74 817 on 30 June 'I:,
to 63 343 on 15 Augusta In Hong Kong there was little change, partly d%'
beeau~ the slow-moving sailing junks that left northern Vietnam ,:$ i' ,
continued to arrive after the clamp was ipplied, and p~rtly because ,: !
sane hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Hoa who left Viemarn for :. 1
chin^ in 1978 wcre unhappy there and were moving on to Hang
j.'
Kmg.
,.
In January 1979 Vietnam suggested an expanded, legal emigration
system, particularly fo'r thm wishing to rejoin relatives abroad, who
would fly direct to their chosen destinations, bypassing ovemowdtd
amps in the ASEAH nations and Hong Kong and voiding the
clangemus sea voyage mcross the South China Sea. The propma1 "
seemed plausible: once the legal channel was expanded, the illegal ,
exodus would dty up and eventually stop. At a conference in Djabm
in May 1979, Vu Hoang, head of the consular sffairs o w
in the foreign ministry in Hanoi, said he 'hoped' people could start ,
leaving Vietnam at a rate of up to 10 000 a month from the end of ,
June. However, by 11 September, there had been only eight flights
out of Vietnam, carrying a total of 879 family reunion ases to
Europe, Australia and north America,
Hanoi blames lack of air tramport and insufficient co-operation
from the west, especially he United States, for the scheme's slow
start. However, there is evidence that the Vietnamese selection procedures
are causing difficulties, When Vietnam had first announced
its plan, it excluded from leaving all thost liable to compulsory milirary
sentice (virtually all males between the ages of sixteen and
forty), but was reported to haw dropped thi8 exclusion in negotktions
with the UNHCR in May: only those whose jobs involved access
to state secrets, workers for whom replacements were not yet available,
and criminals and accomplices were to bt debarred. Yet in
guidelines announoed later, Hanoi said the scheme would be iimjtcd
to 'family reunion and othtr humanitarian cases', and that the number
of such people and the speed of their dcpamre would depend
on the volume of applications for exit from Vietnam and on the
readiness of receiving countries to issue visas. The final say on who
was to go and who was to stay would rest with Vietnam. Would
many of those wanting to leave be prepared to 'wait for a plant
instead of taking a boat, esptcially if hey thought thty had lirtle
hope of being approvtd, mistrusted the authorities controlling the
schtme, and realized they might have to wait a long time? MEAN
countries wcre ~eptial that the scheme would work, although it
appeartd to be trying to take their interests into account. In any case,
the schtme was not of sufficient scope to deal with the potential
number of refugees in Vietnam that could at any time be released.
And, of course, it docs not touch tht other refugees in Indo- chin^,
espially those in Kampuchea.
Legal exit arrangements, such as those propostd by Hanoi, raise
another issue that simmers beneath the story of the bdt people. Are
the beneficiaries migrants or refugees and what are the obligations
of others? The issue here involves a vital principle - a refugee has
a 'well-founded fear of king persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, mtmbership of a particular social group or political
upinion'. Officially approved exdurr ia also a cause of political concern
in the rich countries of the world. The prospect of poor
countries exporting population to rich countries is not one that