THE international community's patience with the Vietnamese boat people is exhausted. A 23-nation statement issued in Geneva this week said the Comprehensive Plan of Action will expire in June and they must all return to Vietnam. Hong Kong has been given longer, because of the numbers involved.
So far, so good. But a similar deadline in December was ignored, as boat people fixed their sights on resettlement in the United States. It must be hoped that the decision to allow the US to interview potential emigrants only in Vietnam will undo some of the damage done by last year's Congressional proposal of resettlement direct from countries of first asylum.
Whatever else Washington may do, it should state unambiguously that no one involved in violence will be accepted in any future departure programme from Vietnam. Such people should be treated as criminals, prosecuted and, if found guilty, deported to Vietnam. The violence and hostage taking at High Island detention centre goes far beyond anything that may be excused by so-called demoralisation at the hopelessness of their situation.
Advocates such as Refugee Concern's Pam Baker - who has done much to prevent genuine injustice in the past, and has helped large numbers of people in their struggle with an unsympathetic, bureaucratic machine - should not pretend there are no criminal elements in the camps. Mrs Baker is being made to look a fool by the very people she seeks to protect, and Correctional Services officers are justly outraged. She has said the violence is 'crazy and cannot be condoned.' But she should have left it at that, not tried to excuse it.
