UNHCR appreciates Vietnam’s cooperation in refugee issues

04/07/2008 -- 9:51 PM

HCM City (VNA) – A representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has appreciated Vietnam ’s active and effective contributions in dealing with refugee issues. After a fact-finding tour of Vietnam , Raymond Anthony Hall, UNHCR Regional Representative for Thailand , Cambodia , Laos and Vietnam , said on July 4 that the Vietnamese Government and local authorities have been exerting serious efforts to solve the issues and implementing successfully many humanitarian policies. During his tour, the UNHCR official gave special interest to programmes initiated by the Ho Chi Minh City authorities to help Cambodian immigrants to settle down. The help included legal assistance such as nationality verification and granting of identity papers. After his direct conversation with 12 highlanders who have repatriated to central highlands Gia Lai province, R. A. Hall said the local authorities helped these people stabilise their accommodations and jobs, adding that the persons were treated well. He assessed these efforts were especially useful for citizens and also the Government. If Vietnam continued these efforts, it would become a typical example in implementing humanitarian policies for refugees and immigrants, the UNHCR official said. He continued to say that he himself had a close eye to the real situation and he was pleased with what the Vietnamese Government have been doing to develop economy based on political stability and improvement of people’s living conditions. He said refugees were poor people and the problem was the poverty but not political reasons, adding this was a common difficulty for many countries, which required close and long-term cooperation to deal with. According to UNHCR Representative in Vietnam Vu Anh Son, the commissioner in 2005-2007 conducted a programme to help repatriated Vietnamese refugees to stabilise their life. The programme’s 750,000 USD was spent to build infirmaries, schools and kindergartens, that directly served the demands of refugees. Son said the UNHCR would continue its coordination with the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments in dealing with existing issues in the coming time. Through a more comprehensive plan of action, Vietnam will receive assistance in policy making and technical solution, he said.-Enditem
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