Senators DECONcINI and MURKOWSKi are the sponsors of the Senate resolution before us today. Our interest in this program stems from a trip the two Senators and I and Congressman MCEWEN made to Southeast Asia in January of this year on behalf of American POWs and MIAs. While in Vietnam. staff members attached to our delegation visited the Phanat Nikhom refugee camp in Thailand and saw firsthand the need for this program to continue in full force. Unfortunately. the SRV suspended UNHCR interviewing and processing of applicants for departure to the United States on January 1. 1986. The breakdown of this important program threatens to prevent longawaited family reunions from taking place and to prolong the imprisonment of many Vietnamese who had ties with the United States or the former government of the Republic of Vietnam. As many of us know. the Orderly Departure Program was negotiated in 1979 in response to the flood of boat people who fled Vietnam in 1978 and 1979. Desperate to leave the country. many took to sea on unsafe vessels and lost their lives as a result of storms and pirate attacks. The Orderly Departure Program has provided a humane and orderly process by which refugees can resettle in countries willing to accept them. Under this program 105.000 people have safely left Vietnam since 1979. Senate Concurrent Resolution 143 is intended to impress on the SRV the importance Congress places on continuation of this humanitarian program and the concern with which we view their suspension of refugee interviewing and processing. I urge my colleagues to join me in demonstrating your support for the Orderly Departure Program by voting in favor of Senate Concurrent Resolution 143. By approving this measure. we will be affirming that the legislative as well as the executive branch stands squarely behind this humanitarian effort.
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refugee refugees