THE United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will launch a saturation information programme next month in an effort to woo Vietnamese boat people out of detention centres and back to Vietnam.
Local representatives of the UNHCR will also be attempting to improve strained relations with non-government organisations working with Vietnamese migrants in the detention centres.
The UNHCR chief-of-mission in Hong Kong, Jahanshah Assadi, said he hoped to regain an element of trust with the boat people which, to some extent, had been lost because they viewed staff at the UNHCR as the bearers of bad news.
The information campaign will be launched in the detention centres early next month. Included will be news and current affairs programmes from Vietnam and the increased distribution of provincial Vietnamese-language newspapers.
Information about the voluntary repatriation programme, the procedure to determine refugee status and what it meant if someone was not recognised as a refugee, would also be released in Vietnam through the media, Mr Assadi said.
This move is aimed at friends and relatives who have considerable influence over detainees' decisions to return.
