Mr. Chairman. the purpose of this amendment is to add $207.290.000 to the migration and refugee assistance account in order to carry out the Presidents recent announcement to provide additional assistance to the Indochinese refugees. On July 26. 1979. the President sent up a request for this amount to cover the costs of transportation. reception. and placement of an additional 84.000 Indochinese refugees in fiscal year 1980. This would allow the resettlement of 14.000 Indochinese refugees per month in the United States as was announced by the President recently. These funds would also provide for the U.S. share of the costs for care and maintenance for increased numbers of refugees in Southeast Asia as well as for the establishment of special refugee processing centers in that area. There are presently 375.000 Indochinese refugees overflowing the refugee camps in Southeast Asia. thousands of refugees have lost their lives in seeking safety and asylum and the prospect of the continued expulsion of refugees from Indochina threatens the peace and security of the entire region. We all have been kept informed about the terrible plight of the poor refugees fleeing in the boats from Indochina and facing unheard of hardships. The people of Southeast Asia have tried to help these people. but their economies and facilities are strained beyond the breaking point. Some of the boats have been turned away and some have been allowed to land only to be refitted and then turned back to the open sea. This is a frightful situation. and a large humanitarian effort is needed to avoid further disaster. As the Members know. on July 20 and 21. a refugee meeting was held in Geneva to discuss this overall situation. According to State Department representatives. the meeting was held to be a success. A number of the Members of this body attended that meeting. and I would defer to them as to the success of the meeting. However. the State Department representatives indicate that as a result of the Geneva meeting the U.N. High Coinmissioner received resettlement offers for 260.000 refugees in the coming 18 months. the UNHCR received new pledges of financial support totalling $190 million. with Japan underwriting 50 percent of the UNHCRs budget for the Indochinese program. and the Philippines has offered to provide a site for a new refugee processing center to accommodate up to 50.000 refugees. The possible creation of an International Resettlement Fund was discussed. and Vietnam indicated a willingness to stem the flow of refugees from its borders and regularize departures from Vietnam directly to resettlement countries. I might also point out that discussions are also being conducted with the Peoples Republic of China to encourage them to accept additional numbers of the Indochinese refugees. the ethnic Chinese. I want to go on record at this point that I believe the administration should do much more to encourage other countries to accept refugees permanently. I think the United States has adequately demonstrated its humanitarian interests in caring for these refugees in monetary terms and in permanent resettlement of large numbers of the refugees in the United States. We need to do more. and the administration needs to be more aggressive in negotiating with the other countries to resettle more Indochinese refugees within their own borders. I am talking about permanent resettlement. I think the American people are willing to accept these people into the United States. as we have already done. with about 230.000 coming in through August and probably nearly 300.000 by the end of the year.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees