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8 Refugee Reports 1 (1987)

handle is hein.immigration/refgrpt0008 and id is 1 raw text is: Sports A Project of the American Council for Nationalities Service 815 Fifteenth Street NW, Suite 610 Washington, DC 20005 (202) 667-0782 Volume VIII, Number 1 January 23, 1987 U.S. ORDERLY DEPARTURE PROGRAM: STALLED OR SHIFTING GEARS? One year ago, on January 1, 1986, the Vietnamese gov- ernment suspended further interviewing for the Orderly Departure Program (ODP), disrupting the six-year-old initiative that has provided a safe and legal avenue for more than 115,000 Vietnamese refugees and immi- grants to leave their country. The suspension of in- terviewing for the U.S. program coincided with re- strictions in processing for many of the other 40 countries involved in ODP. Since that time, U.S. and Vietnamese officials have met at least twice under the auspices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in an effort to get the program back on track. Talks were held in Hanoi in late August, and again in Geneva in November. Al- hough both governments continue to express commitment o continue ODP, interviewing of Vietnamese who have applied to come to the United States remains at a standstill. The Vietnamese government was forced to suspend the interviewing until the United States moved to resolve expeditiously a backlog of 22,000 cases that had built up, a high-ranking Vietnamese official said in an interview in the Bangkok Nation. The government had released these people for exit, they had been in- terviewed by U.S. staff working on assignment to the UNHCR in Ho Chi Minh City, but they had not yet been accepted or rejected by the United States. U.S. officials, while critical of Vietnam's uni- lateral action, have been working on the backlog. From January to December 1986, about 11,000 people have de- parted Vietnam en route to the United States via ODP. Roughly 2,000 people have been rejected. The backlog is now down to about 9,000. We're over the hump. The backlog has been re- solved as far as we're concerned, one State Department official told Refugee Reports. At the current rate of departures--about 250 people per week according to the State Department--the backlog will be gone by October. The official said that the U.S. program needed a back- 0og of 3,000 to 4,000 in order to maintain a regular plow of about 1,000 departures per month. We will consider the backlog resolved when it IN THIS ISSUE: After a year-long suspension of interviewing for the Orderly Departure Program, this issue examines the future of safe and organized Vietnamese emigration ....... 1 @ Update .................5 0 Recent Developments Administration requests large cuts in FY 88 refugee program budgets; Khao I Dang camp closes; Afghan refugees face increased pressures; INS pro- poses to make certain groups ineligible for refugee admis- sion who could be admitted as immigrants; Education De- partment seeks wider options for alternatives to bilingual instruction; First Cubans paroled from Oakdale ........ 7 0 Projects and Programs Radio Corporation of America trains refugees in office skills ..................... 13 * Meetings and Conferences * Resources ............. 14 * Statistics Orderly departures from Vietnam .................... 16 Digitized from Best Copy Available

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