Speech #980101237

Mr. President. reports from Central America indicate there a serious regional crisis of peopleof humanitarian and refugee problems spilling across and within the borders of all the countries in the area. Nearly a million people are refugees and the numbers are still growing. The refugee crisis in El Salvador is even worse than it was in Vietnam. At the peak of our involvement in Indochina. 8 percent of the civilians were displaced persons or refugees. whereas the number in El Salvador is now over 10 percent. And thousands upon thousands of these refugees are condemned to exist in camps with subhuman conditions as deplorable as those in Vietnan. That the humanitarian needs of refugees have been neglected far too long in El Salvador is clearly documented in a staff report submitted to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy. There is now an urgent need for additional food and medical assistance to deal with camps which have been allowed to fester for over a year. The administration has talked a great deal about the need for more military aid. but we have heard little about the escalating humanitarian crisis.