Vietnamese

Resolution number
25
Whereas
  1. The Canadian government is a signatory of and contributor to the 1989 Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) regarding the situation of Indochinese refugees;
  2. The application of the CPA in Southeast Asian refugee camps, as it now stands, leads to:
    1. human rights abuses which affect the safety and dignity of asylum-seekers in the camps and result in many genuine refugees being wrongly denied refugee status;
    2. deaths of many innocent lives;
    3. forced repatriation;
    4. deprivation measures imposed upon the camp populations;
    5. the birth of a dangerously convenient international precedent which aims to eliminate a refugee situation rather than to resolve it;
Therefore be it resolved

That the CCR:

  1. Request the Canadian government to make representations to the UNHCR, the CPA steering committee and the CPA fellow signatories to:
    1. establish a mechanism to identify, review and correct cases which have been egregiously denied refugee status, with the use of the UNHCR's mandate authority;
    2. respect the safety and dignity of asylum seekers, by immediately recanting the policy of deprivation measures which has led to reductions in food rations and cuts in educational and medical services;
    3. abstain from the use of force and violence in the repatriation programme;
    4. quickly resettle recognized refugees, many of whom have languished for years in transit camps.
  2. Make direct representations to the UNHCR to this effect.
Working Group
Overseas Protection and Resettlement