Speech #1010169824

Mr. President. I rise today to submit a resolution on behalf of thousands of refugees from Vietnam who have bravely escaped the grip of the Hanoi governments tyranny but now face the prospect returning involuntarily to their homeland. I speak of the socalled boat people. innocent families who over the last 10 years have sought to move out from under the shadow of Communist rule by boarding rickety vessels destined for the South China Sea. Although these men and women expected rough and unfriendly waters. they did not anticipate the same treatment on the shores of the countries where they landed. But last month. Mr. President. six Southeast Asian nations informed the United States that they will no longer accept any more Vietnamese boat people unless we agree to force thousands of these unwilling refugees back to Vietnam. This announcement resulted from a refugee admissions process. used by most countries that accept the boat people. to differentiate those who have left Vietnam because of a fear of political repression from those who have left for reasons not considered to be political in nature. Despite the fact that it remains extremely difficult to impose this distinction on people fleeing from the indiscriminate repression of totalitarian rule. the United States struck a compromise with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN] last year called the Comprehensive Plan of Action [CPA]. The CPA permitted all nations receiving boat people to screen out political from nonpolitical refugees. Individuals who failed to meet the required criteria would at some point have to go back to Vietnam. In agreeing to the CPA. however. the United States Government did not give its consent to the involuntary repatriation of anyone who feared that a return to Vietnam would only bring persecution. imprisonment. or any other unwarranted punishment. Rather. our Government had the understanding that people who failed to qualify as political refugees could stay in their host countries for an tnspecified period of time until they either voluntarily went back to Vietnam for reasons of their own or could go back to Vietnam as a result of a more tolerant legal and humanitarian climate. But today. Mr. President. this understanding. and therefore the lives of thousands of innocent Vietnamese citizens. hang in the balance. ASEAN members have told the United States that they will not accept even authentic political refugees from Vietnam starting next month unless America agrees to the forced expulsion from their nations of innocent men and women who somehow could not provide adequate political reasons for their flight. Malaysia just turned away 7.700 Vietnamese asylumseekers last month and up to 30.000 people in Hong Kong face the threat of expulsion from that territory. Yet we must realize. Mr. President. that while the immigration bureaucrats of the ASEAN countries stay busy deciding if a boatload of terrified Vietnamese people can be considered victims of political repression. the Communist rulers in Hanoi do not trouble themselves with this question as they close the prison doors. fill the reeducation camps. steal a farmers land. or burn a professors books. The resolution I submit today simply reaffirms the CPA agreement that the United States and ASEAN concluded last year. It calls on the President to continue his policy of opposing any limitations on the extension of asylum rights to genuine political refugees from Vietnam and to initiate efforts. in cooperation with the ASEAN states. to find a temporary holding center for boat people who fail to quality for permanent residence in countries other than their native land. Finally. the resolution states that no Vietnamese refugees should be forced back into Vietnam unless they choose to do so or if political conditions would permit their safe reentry. We would visit a cruel irony on the boat people. Mr. President. if during this age of worldwide triumph for the democratic idea. we permitted a tide of indifference to wash away these courageous men and women to a fate of death on the high seas or persecution at home. I therefore solicit the enthusiastic support of my colleagues for this resolution as a sign that Congress will back every diplomatic effort on the part of the President to preserve the lives of these tired but determined Vietnamese refugees who have dared to reach across the international waters for their freedom.e