Speech #870193230

Voices of charity in Latin America are silent. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva has a specific mandate to deal with European refugees only. The Life editorial then recommends that the United Nations expand its Refugee Commissioners franchise to take official cognizance of this most serious refugee problem. At present. the mandate of the U.N. Refugee Commissioner does not extend to Middle East or Far East refugees. although the General Assembly of the United Nations as far back as November 26. 1957. recognized that the problem of Chinese refugees in Hong Kong is "such as to be of concern to the international community." The General Assembly at that time authorized the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to "use his good offices to encourage arrangements for contributions for the relief of these refugees." Today. the problem is of such magnitude that much more than fund collecting needs to be done by the United Nations. One of the first orders of business at the next General Assembly should be the broadening of the mandate of the High Commissioner and provision for a care and resettlement program under U.N. auspices. Meantime. to meet the immediate situation. temporary refugee camps should be set up to care for Chinese refugees until permanent resettlement can be made. Sparsely populated and nearby countries should be asked to provide space for such camps so that refugees from Chinese communism will not have to be returned to the mainland from which they fled. Every humanitarian instinct cries out for us who are free to help those thousands who are struggling to be free. To return them to the forces of oppression from which they fled would be a repudiation of all our tenets of charity. goodness. and righteousnessa denial of our oftproclaimed concern for the dignity and wellbeing of every individual. The United States should do its part. too. to alleviate the current crises. Congress should enact the bill sponsored by the Senator from Michigan and cosponsored by 25 other Senators. including myself. which would increase the United States Chineseorigin quota to 5.335 a yearwhich would include some refugeesand which also would admit separately 50.000 refugees a year from all over. some of whom would be Chinese refugees. Passage of the Hart bill would not only be in Americas humanitarian tradition. it would provide our Government with strong leverage to persuade other nations to shoulder some of the burden of this enormous refugee problem. It would help to demonstrate that we are willing to give sanctuary to persons fleeing Communist tyranny no matter in what quarter of the globe it exists. It would be a sorry blot on America if we turned our back on these people.