BP: More aid to be sought from UNHC

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: BP: More aid to be sought from UNHCR



June 24, 1999 
REFUGEES

More aid to be sought from UNHCR

Plea seen as test case for future problems


Bhanravee Tansubhapol Nussara Sawatsawang

Thailand will ask the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to
continue
helping meet the cost of caring for the remaining Laotian refugees.

Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Suphat Chitranukroh said the request
would be
a test case for future problems, notably displaced Burmese.

The 1,340 remaining Laotian refugees are being held at Ban Napho camp, Nakhon
Phanom, which opened more than 20 years ago.

UNHCR financial support is due to end next Wednesday.

Extension of financial assistance will be raised when the new UNHCR regional
representative Jahanshah Assadi pays a courtesy call on Foreign Minister Surin
Pitsuwan tomorrow.

About 160 of the Laotians at Ban Napho were looking for resettlement in a
third
country, a source said. Of these, 35 were awaiting a reply from New Zealand,
and four from the United States. The other 122 had not yet shown a preference.

Eighteen Laotian refugees were recently resettled in the US.

The repatriation programme is deadlocked. The refugees say they fear for their
safety if they return to Laos, and Vientiane continues to insist on receiving
only voluntary returnees.

The source said there could be another high-level meeting soon of the UNHCR,
Thailand and Laos in a bid to end the deadlock.

The last tripartite meeting was in Bangkok last November.

"The problem is not repatriation, it is Vientiane's policy of accepting only
voluntary returnees," the source said.

"So we think we will ask Laos to take them back anyway at the next round of
negotiations."Laos should agree to take back the refugees unconditionally. "If
we talk about a voluntary return, this matter cannot be tackled," the source
said.

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