Speech #960105124

FISH. for their work. I think this commitment is one we should have made and that we should keep. Without these additional resources we are going to spread the services much too thin so we would not be able to do the type of job that should be done for these refugees who are being brought to this country. I think we all see manifest in our districts and throughout this country problems that have been and are created by bringing in refugees who have not had the proper resources and services in the camps and in locations where they can be prepared to enter this country in an appropriate manner. The current situation of the refugees has been brought to my personal attention because of the large number of Indochinese refugees in St. Paul and because of the compassionate concern of the late flr. Ted Mitau. This amendment would provide an additional $207.3 million for the Indochinese refugee program. I understand that this money is essential if we are going to keep our commitment made to other countries and if we are going to provide the needed initial services to these refugees. The plight of the Indochinese refugee is well known. We are all aware of the sometimes heroic journey these people have made to escape the persecution of despotic regimes. In fact. in many instances these people are forced to leave their homeland because of their past cooperation with U.S. military and intelligence forces. The amendment jells perfectly with the administrations new initiative on refugees and meshes with the immigration reauthorization legislation proceeding through the House and Senate. Of the additional $207.3 million. $84 million will be transferred to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. Some of this will be used to establish a refugee processing center in Southeast Asia. This is desperately needed to relieve the pressure placed on Maylasia. Thailand. and Hong Kong by the rapid influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees. Without a processing center. these countries may be forced to revert back to the policy of turning away refugees at their border. More than half of this money will be used to directly finance our increased commitment of accepting 14.000 Indochinese refugees a month. Five million dollars will be used by the State Department to increase the efficiency of the selection and documentation of refugees for permanent resettlement to the United States. This money is urgently needed to bring the processing up to speed in these camps. The current situation is so bad that in many cases refugees have been waiting for more than 4 years. The amendment also provides $54.5 million for transportation to the United States and $45 million in per capita grants to voluntary service organizations for initial resettlement expenses. It also provides $17 million in reimbursement to the Navy for their expenses in picking the boat people out of the ocean. A final and extremely important purpose of the amendment will be to enhance the medical screening of the refugees. The medical problems are enormous. In addition to the problems of malnutrition and in some cases starvation. there is a very high incidence of communicable diseases. Medical personnel working with these refugees have seen a high incidence of tropical diseases which are not common in the United States. I recently met with many individuals from my district who are providing health care for refugees. It is the opinion of these health care providers that the typical Indochinese refugee is still faced with serious health problems even after several months in this country. Enhanced medical screening together with improved health care of refugees in the processing and resettlement camps is desperately needed. The $840.000 appropriated for this purpose will do much to improve the health of these people. It is essential for their safety and wellbeing as well as in the public health interests of the United States thatwe provide sufficient money to institute comprehensive health screening of these refugees. Mr. Chairman. these are nuts and bolts of this amendment.