Speech #1000008831

I have been a director of the IRC for over 30 years and was once vice president of it. It is one of my proudest affiliations. The IRC serves as joint voluntary agency for our refugee programs in Thailandand other groups. including the U.S. Catholic Conference. Church World Service. the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service [LIRS] serve similar functions in other countries where there are significant refugee concentrations. Among governments. Thailand deserves our thanks for its assistance to the Cambodians and other Indochinese. as do the other countries of the region: Hong Kong. Indonesia. Malaysia. the Philippines. and Singapore. Our domestic voluntary agencies have long played key roles In refugee resettlement. and they are well represented in Rhode Island. In particular. I would like to express my appreciation for the efforts of the Cambodian Society of Rhode Island. the International Institute. the IndoChinese Advocacy Project. and the KhmerBuddhist Temple. These groups have helped focus public awareness on the plight of the refugees in Khao I Dang and are actively involved in helping refugees when they arrive in the United States. We have many Indochinese refugees in Rhode Islandthe largest percentage In relation to our population of any State in the country. They are proving to be good members of our society. many of them moving toward U.S. citizenship. selfsupporting through employment. their children doing well in school. in some cases car. rying off academic prizes and winning spelling bees. despite their newness to the English language. Many of the refugees in Rhode Island are from Cambodia. and it is from them and from their friends and supporters that I have heard at first hand of the plight of the Cambodians who remain in Thailand. Many are imperilled now by the Thai Governments announced intent to close the Khao I Dang Camp. Others are stranded in temporary encampmepts along the Thai/Cambodian border. The Khao I Dang Camp is familiar to many Americans. since it was the setting for the closing scenes of the Academy Awardwinning film "The Killing Fields." When the heroic Cambodian refugee. Dith Pran. finally makes his way across the border into Thailand it is at Khao I Dang that he arrives. and it is there that he is reunited with his friend and colleague. the journalist Sydney Schanberg. In my letter. which I addressed to Jonathan Moore. the U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs. and also sent to Deputy Secretary Whitehead. I referred to the Cambodians as "tragic victims of recent geopolitical turbulance." and stated that "it would be unconscionable to place these refugees at further risk in camps closer to the border." I asked that we step up our efforts through our already authorized and funded refugee and immigration programs to assist these deserving people. I am glad to note from Ambassador Moores reply that the Thai Government has said it will continue to make refugees available for resettlement prqcessing. I hope that will include processing for refugee admission as well as immigration to the United States. and that arrangements will be made to facilitate such processing on an expedited basis. If the refugees are moved to the border. there must be a renewed commitment to offer international protection to the border population and to permit resettlement processing. particularly for those with ties to the United States. This is a responsibility that bears on the Thai authorities. who we hope will find a way to end the catch22 whereby they ask that we resettle refugees from Khao I Dang and elsewhere. then deny permission to carry out the necessary interviews and processinga point well made in the New York Times editorial. Even more. it bears on our own Government. and on the other countries continuing to offer resettlement from Southeast Asiaprincipally Australia and Canada. When we think back on the tragic history since the fall of the Indochina countries to communism in 1975. the tragedy is only lightened by the memory of the worlds willingness to rescue the refugees who fled and found only temporary and insecure first as:ylum within the region. The first wave came in 1975 with the fall of Saigonmore than 150.000 coming immediately to the United States and elsewhere. Then came the boat people in 197880. a flood tide of humanityand the world responded. At the Boat Refugee Conference in Geneva in July 1979. the United States under President Carters leadership doubled its already generous resettlement program and pledged to accept 14.000 a montha rate substantially achieved for 2 years. There are now much smaller numbers of refugees in the region. and an even smaller number for whom resettlement in the United States is the appropriate solution. But there are some for whom this is not just the right answer. it is the only answer. What I believe has happened is that a program that stands as a monument to U.S. generosity to refugeesa monument that to some small extent atones for Americas tragic failure to do more to rescue the Jews of Europe from the Nazi Holocausthas gone tired in its later years. But the problem remains: there are refugees in Southeast Asia for whom resettlement in the United States is as right and necessary today as it was 10 years ago. And we should renew and revitalize our commitment to help them. I ask the responsible authoritiesin the State Department. at the Justice Department. and the Immigration Service. in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Committee of the Red Crossto work with the Thai Government. and with the other resettlement countries. to assure that the last phase of the Indochinese refugee program lives up to the high standards set in earlier years. Refugee admissions numbers should not be the issue: 32.000 have been authorized and funded for 1987. Most of the Khmer on the border will return to Cambodia when their security can be assured. But there are someon the border and in Khao I Dangfor whom resettlement remains the only solution. We can help them as refugees or as immigrants. depending on their qualifications. But for their sake. and ours. let us help them. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the RECORD the texts of my letters to Ambassador Moore and Deputy Secretary Whitehead.