U.S. Opposes Forced Return of Viet Refugees : Geneva Talks Seek Way to Resettle ‘Boat People’

GENEVA — At an international conference seeking new procedures for screening and resettling Vietnamese “boat people,” the United States on Tuesday strongly opposed proposals for the mandatory return of refugees determined to have fled Vietnam for economic reasons.

“Until dramatic improvements occur in that country’s economic, social and political life,” U.S. envoy Lawrence S. Eagleburger told delegates from 50 countries at the U.N.-sponsored conference, “the United States will remain unalterably opposed to the forced repatriation of Vietnamese asylum-seekers.”

In this regard, the United States found an unusual ally in the Communist government of Vietnam itself.

“We strongly support the principal of free choice of residence and of voluntary repatriation,” said Vietnam Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach, who is also vice president of the Council of Ministers in Vietnam. “That’s why we resolutely reject all forms of coercion.”

The U.S. position is also supported by the U.N. refugee commissioner and by France, which has a history of humanitarian work with the boat people.

However, the majority of the Asian countries directly affected by a recent dramatic increase in Vietnamese refugees arriving on their shores, as well as Britain and Australia, support a rigorous screening process and the mandatory return of Vietnamese who cannot prove political persecution in their homeland.

“We in Thailand will not be able to bear the brunt of the problem much longer if there is not a new approach,” said Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Siddhi Savetsila.

“Vietnam must accept that no country has the right to export its surplus population to other countries,” said British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, in a speech that reflected the tough mood of many of the delegates.

The International Conference on Indochinese Refugees was prompted by the dramatic increase in the number of Vietnamese fleeing their country. As of May 31, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees reported 83,296 Vietnamese boat people in refugee camps, the highest number since 1979.

From a high point of 202,121 refugees in 1979, the flow of refugees steadily declined until it reached a low of 19,527 in 1986. Since then, however, the number has increased again, greatly alarming the countries of “first asylum” surrounding Vietnam.

Different From Predecessors

Many countries, including British-administered Hong Kong, claim that the new wave of refugees are radically different from their predecessors.

“The great majority of those now arriving in Hong Kong,” said Howe, “are economic migrants--farmers, fishermen and peasants from the north with no association with the former South Vietnamese regime.”

At the last U.N. conference on Indochinese refugees in July, 1979, also in Geneva, the mood of most of the nations was more sympathetic to the Vietnamese plight. For the most part, asylum, refuge and resettlement was considered a right for the Vietnamese after their involvement in a long civil war.

Since then, however, the continuing presence of large numbers of Vietnamese refugees has caused political friction in the host countries as well as some of the settlement countries such as Australia.

“The resettlement strategy adopted 10 years ago, which was designed to provide a generous and humanitarian response to genuine refugees, is no longer a complete solution,” commented Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Gareth Evans.

“Indeed, it has in a sense become part of the problem. The belief in the ultimate inevitability of resettlement has become the cause of departure of those who are not refugees but whose motivation for leaving is clearly economic--who are chasing a dream of a better life elsewhere.”

Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, more than 1 million Vietnamese have left Vietnam, many braving open seas, pirates and gunboats as they made their way to refugee camps mainly in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Indonesia.

More than 714,000 Indochinese refugees eventually immigrated into the United States, making it by far the largest recipient country, followed by China (284,000), Canada (121,182), Australia (117,997) and France (108,241).

Today, the United States is expected to join the other countries attending the conference in approving a new plan to process Vietnamese and Laotian refugees in camps. The plan calls for a screening process under the auspices of the U.N. refugee commissioner, an expansion of a resettlement program for applicants inside Vietnam and acceleration of a “voluntary repatriation” program for those refugees who do not qualify for political refugee status.

U.S. officials are hoping the voluntary repatriation plan will eliminate the need for deportation and forced repatriation schemes.

“We are practically the only country left fighting for a humanitarian way,” said one frustrated official.