Speech #1000086723

There are other children like Le Van Mihn that need to be rescued from their miserable plight. While Congress passed the Amerasian ActPublic Law 97359in 1982 to address this issue. that legislation has proved unworkable with respect to Vietnamese Amerasians. That law was designed to facilitate the immigration to the United States of the thousands of offspring of U.S. servicemen living throughout Asia. In sum. the act worked relatively well for Amerasians living in some Asian countries. such as South Korea and the Philippines. but the strict requirements of the act have virtually prevented its use for those in Vietnam. Some progress on this issue has been made in recent years. but has unfortunately stalled. Since 1982. some 9.000 Vietnamese Amerasians and their family members have come to the United States through the auspices of the Orderly Departure Program [ODPI administered by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees [UNHCR]. However. in January 1986. the Vietnamese Government effectively suspended the ODP program. leaving the fate of Amerasians in question. While the breakdown of the ODP had little to do with the specific question of Amerasians. it has had a prohibitive effect on their emigration from Vietnam. Several problems prevented further inclusion of Vietnamese Amerasian children in the ODP. The suspension of onsite interviews by ODP officials has meant that only a trickle of Amerasians has been able to leave Vietnam since the end of 1985. The Vietnamese have never been pleased with using the ODP process for the emigration of Amerasians. Because the ODP designates these children as refugees. which is the United States point of view. the Vietnamese reject this term because it implies official persecution in Vietnam. Also. the ODP addresses the question through the United Nations. when it is in fact a bilateral issue. Third. the ODP lumps the Amerasian children with the thousands of other refugees who seek to emigrate from Vietnam. which traps them in the slow. cumbersome bureaucracy and offers them little hope of immediate freedom. Persistent diplomatic efforts. including Congressman MILzExs recent mission. have hopefully resolved the dispute on this issue between our country and Vietnam. Most recently.