United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1997 - Viet Nam, 1 January 1997, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a8b728.html [accessed 17 September 2023]
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The saga of Vietnamese boat people and asylum seekers largely ended during 1996. The Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indochinese Refugees (CPA) ended in stages between 1995 and June 30, 1996, and UNHCR terminated its involvement with screened-out (determined not to be refugees under CPA criteria) Vietnamese in all Southeast Asian first-asylum countries except Hong Kong. An estimated 34,400 Cambodian refugees remained in Vietnam. At the end of the year, only some 1,690 Vietnamese refugees and 8,292 screened-out Vietnamese and Vietnamese asylum seekers remained in first asylum countries (including 1,345 refugees in Hong Kong, 29 in Indonesia, 15 in Japan, 42 in the Philippines, and 30 in Thailand; and 6,295 screened-out Vietnamese and asylum seekers in Hong Kong, 14 in Japan, 20 in Malaysia, 1,400 in the Philippines, and 259 in Thailand). Another 286,700 Vietnamese refugees, mostly ethnic Chinese, lived in China. Vietnamese refugees in China were not part of the CPA. A total of 29,789 screened-out Vietnamese asylum seekers repatriated to Vietnam from first asylum countries in 1996, including 18,350 who returned voluntarily, 11,305 who were returned involuntarily through Orderly Return Programs (ORPs), and 134 nonrefugees deported from Hong Kong. Altogether, 105,614 Vietnamese returned home (92,019 voluntarily and 13,595 involuntarily) from first-asylum countries from the time the CPA came into effect in 1989 through the end of 1996. CPA Ends In March 1995, participants in the sixth meeting of the CPA Steering Committee reconfirmed their determination to end the CPA in June 1995. That did not happen, however. One reason was the U.S. House of Representatives approval, on May 24, 1995, of a measure that called for all screened-out Vietnamese boat people to be allowed another chance to make their case for refugee status and resettlement in the United States a proposal that both the U.S. Department of State and UNHCR strongly opposed. Although the proposal eventually became mired in complex political negotiations involving the larger U.S. foreign aid bill, it had an immediate and marked impact on Vietnamese boat people in first-asylum countries. Soon after word of the House proposal reached the camps and detention centers, anti-repatriation protests that became violent took place in several countries and voluntary repatriation virtually halted throughout the region. In January 1996, UNHCR told participants in an informal meeting of the CPA Steering Committee that it planned to phase out its care and maintenance activities for screened-out Vietnamese in first-asylum countries. At the seventh and final CPA Steering Committee meeting in Geneva on March 5 and 6, UNHCR formally announced that the CPA would terminate on July 1, though its monitoring and assistance programs for returnees in Vietnam would continue well beyond the closure of the CPA. Faced with the imminent end of UNHCR assistance, first-asylum countries intensified their efforts to convince screened-out Vietnamese to repatriate voluntarily. Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, which had previously signed ORP agreements with Vietnam but had not actually returned any Vietnamese involuntarily, began to implement the ORP (though the Philippines halted ORP returns after local church officials criticized its actions). Returnees In 1995, only 5,623 screened-out Vietnamese repatriated voluntarily. During 1996, 18,350 did so, including 8,140 from Hong Kong, 3,127 from Indonesia, 16 from Japan, 3,457 from Malaysia, 867 from the Philippines, 99 from Singapore, and 2,644 from Thailand. Only 1,787 Vietnamese were returned through ORPs from 1991 through 1995 (all but 12 by Hong Kong). But during 1996, first asylum countries returned 11,305 Vietnamese involuntarily through ORPs (6,829 by Hong Kong, 1,379 by Indonesia, 839 by Malaysia, 88 by the Philippines, 155 by Japan, and 2,015 by Thailand). According to UNHCR's Branch Office in Vietnam, since the signing of the CPA, 92,092 Vietnamese have repatriated voluntarily from first-asylum countries (54,103 from Hong Kong, 11,287 from Indonesia, 1,138 from Japan, 8,275 from Malaysia, 2,414 from the Philippines, 106 from Singapore, 14,668 from Thailand, and 101 from other countries). Some 13,092 others have been returned through ORP programs (8,604 from Hong Kong, 1,379 from Indonesia, 155 from Japan, 851 from Malaysia, 88 from the Philippines, and 2,015 from Thailand). Under the terms of the CPA, UNHCR monitored and assisted the returnees. It gave all returnees a cash grant and, along with several international NGOs, set up micro-development projects throughout Vietnam to boost the ability of local communities to absorb returnees. Although the Vietnamese government continued to repress domestic dissent and restricted basic political and religious freedoms, UNHCR said that the vast majority of returnees faced "no protection problems whatsoever." In a December report on the returnees, the agency said, "Most returnee complaints stem from economic difficulties, bureaucratic problems, or delays in payment of their repatriation grants." UNHCR monitoring officers met all groups of returning Vietnamese (including both those who repatriated voluntarily and those who were involuntarily returned) and provided them with the address and telephone number of the UNHCR office nearest their home area. UNHCR monitors also visited returnees in their homes and investigated any alleged protection or reintegration problems. UNHCR reported that it had made 27,000 monitoring visits since 1989, personally meeting 26 percent of all returnees. The agency added that it had visited returnees in all 53 of Vietnam's provinces, and had reached its goal of visiting 50 percent of all returnees in nearly half of all provinces and districts. "ROVR" In 1995, voluntary repatriation came to a halt following the resettlement proposal approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. Several U.S. NGOs then put forward a proposal aimed at encouraging screened-out Vietnamese to repatriate voluntarily while still providing them one final opportunity to apply for U.S. resettlement. After several failed starts, on April 22, 1996, the United States announced the launching of the Resettlement Opportunities for Vietnamese Returnees (ROVR) program. All Vietnamese in first asylum camps as of October 1, 1995 were eligible to apply for ROVR, even if they had already returned to Vietnam. Those still in the camps could apply for ROVR only if they also registered for voluntary repatriation by June 30. The applications would first be screened by the U.S. Joint Voluntary Agency (JVA) to determine if the applicant appeared to fall within one of the various categories of people whom the United States was willing to consider for resettlement, including: persons (and their relatives) who were detained for three or more years in reeducation camps or who suffered a permanent disability as a result of their detention; persons with five or more years employment with the U.S. government or other U.S. institution or NGO or with the former South Vietnamese government; persons detained for political or religious activities; religious leaders in Vietnam; ethnic Montagnards; ethnic Nung associated with the U.S. government prior to 1975; and other persons determined to be of significant interest to the United States. Those who appeared to fit the criteria would then be interviewed by a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) official in Vietnam, who would make the final determination as to whether the individual and his or her family should be offered resettlement. According to the International Catholic Migration Commission, 5,870 screened-out Vietnamese applied for ROVR from first asylum camps. Including applicants' immediate relatives still living in Vietnam, the total number of applicants was 9,725. The latter figure included 1,003 from Hong Kong and 465 relatives; 1,192 from Indonesia and 1,180 relatives; 51 from Japan and 52 relatives; 1,482 from Malaysia and 916 relatives; 115 from the Philippines and 199 relatives; and 2,027 from Thailand and 1,043 relatives. Former camp residents who returned home between October 1, 1995 and April, when the ROVR application period began, were eligible to apply, but because this was not publicized in Vietnam, no one did so. An estimated 100 returnees who did not apply for ROVR before departing the first-asylum countries indicated that they wished to apply after returning to Vietnam. It was uncertain, however, when or if the U.S. government would re-open ROVR registration to them, or to those who returned home before ROVR registrations began in April. By year's end, all 9,725 applications had been screened, but no INS interviews had occurred and no returnees had departed Vietnam under the ROVR program. Of the applicants screened, 5,462 were deemed to qualify for INS interviews and 3,715 others were thought possibly to qualify. Only 548 of the applicants were determined not to fall into any of the specified categories and therefore not be eligible for INS interviews. During U.S. fiscal year 1996, nearly 27,000 Vietnamese departed for the United States through the Orderly Departure Program (ODP), including 14,948 former re-education camp detainees and their families admitted to the United States as refugees, and 9,058 persons granted immigrant visas. Cambodian Refugees According to UNHCR, some 30,000 ethnic Vietnamese Cambodian refugees who fled Khmer Rouge-inspired violence against ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia between 1993 and 1995 remained in Vietnam's Mekong Delta area. Although the Vietnamese government has not decided whether to grant them Vietnamese citizenship and has not otherwise regularized their status, it generally extends them the rights, services, and assistance available to the local population. In 1995, UNHCR determined that the group no longer needed UNHCR involvement. Another 15,000 Cambodians who arrived in Vietnam during the same period either spontaneously repatriated or moved out of the camps to other areas of the country; UNHCR no longer counts those who remain as refugees. Another 4,400 Cambodian refugees, mostly ethnic Chinese who fled to Vietnam between 1978 and 1980, also remained in Vietnam. The Vietnamese authorities required that they remain at the 979 Camp in Song Be. The authorities permitted the group to engage in economic activities and have allocated plots of land to some, but did not regard them as permanently settled and encouraged them to repatriate or resettle in third countries. No Cambodians repatriated from Vietnam during the year.
