Speech #1040104669

On June 20. the Washington Post cataloged the devastating impact of this legislation in an article datelined Hong Kong. This Member quotes. At first. no one knew exactly why a riot erupted at the Hong Kong refugee detention center on May 20th. Thousands of Vietnamese violently battled back with stones. makeshift spears and anything else they could throw. leaving 168 police officers and 73 Vietnamese injured. Refugee workers soon got a clue as to what was happening when they spotted some of the rioting Vietnamese waving tiny American flags and portraits of President Clinton. Quoting from the Post: The evidence became ironclad about a week later. when 200 Vietnamese who had volunteered to go home unexpectedly changed their minds. just 48 hours before their scheduled June 1st departure. They told UN officials that they would rather wait in Hong Kong camps until the U.S. Congress decided on a Housepassed bill providing for the rescreening of up to 20.000 Vietnamese refugees for possible admittance into the United States. This Member had predicted before this body that this provision in H.R. 1561 would raise false expectations of resettlement among Indochinese boat people. causing violence in the camps and stopping voluntary repatriation. Unfortunately. as the Post article amply demonstrates. this prediction has come to pass. Whether this illadvised provision ever becomes lawand the Clinton administration has already made it clear that this issue is among those certain to provoke a Presidential vetothe damage has already been done. The article continues. and I quote: A carefully constructed global agreement signed six years ago in Geneva. which laid out a formula for screening the Vietnamese boat people and sending home those not deemed genuine refugees fleeing persecution. seems in danger of collapse. And a more recently agreedupon timetable for finally resolving the twodecadeold "boat people" crisis by years end now looks unlikely. A Hong Kong refugee official is quoted in the article saying: Like a bolt of lightning. initiatives were taken in Congress that have thrown this program out of gear. This provision Is an unhelpful intervention which has raised false hopes. The official concludes that resolving the boat people crisis was "not easy before Congress.