Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of the Bereuter amendment regarding Southeast Asian refugees. I have visited refugee camps in Thailand and Hong Kong over the last 20 years. most recently just last summer in Hong Kong. It is my observation that while the early refugees were certainly tied in with U.S. interests and support of our war efforts. the present refugees do not reflect this early perception by the American people and veteran organizations. Most of the refugee population in the Hong Kong camps have been through a screening process and have been classified as economic migrants. or to put it explicitly many are northern Vietnamese fishermen who had nothing to do with supporting our war efforts. The United States was a signature to the Comprehensive Plan of Action in 1989 which strengthened the principles of first asylum in Southeast Asia. For example this program enabled the repatriation of Vietnamese. Cambodian. and Laotians back to their country of origin if not classified as a refugee. By this action countries like Thailand that had become weary of holding refugees were able to see the end of the tunnel. and stopped pushing back potential refugees into the sea. We all remember the terrible piracy and raping of women on boats that occurred. This new program helped to reduce such incidents. It also worked out agreements with countries that were the source of the migration like Vietnam to take back these people and encourage them to utilize internationally accepted immigration programs like the Orderly Departure Program that has allowed 500.000 to start new lives in the United States and other countries. While there may be some refugees who have been improperly classified. these cases could be reviewed with U.S. intervention under the flexibility of the present agreement. Moreover. the root cause of the migration is the poor economic conditions in these countries. especially Vietnam. By continuing our agreement we encourage additional cooperation with Vietnam which will lead to increased cooperation on the POW issue and complete the normalization of relationships between our two countries.
Identified stereotypes
Generalizing that current refugees are primarily economic migrants and not tied to US interests.