UNACCOMPANIED Vietnamese children being held in Hong Kong have been given top priority by refugee experts gathering in Bangkok this week to formulate a plan for their resettlement or repatriation.
Most of them should have been moved out of the camps by 1992 according to the Comprehensive Plan of Action established in 1989 to address the problem of Vietnamese asylum-seekers in Asia.
Hundreds of unaccompanied minors have posed an ever-growing problem to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a difficult group to process because of opposition from the governments of resettlement countries.
At least 50 unaccompanied minors who have been recommended for resettlement in third countries have languished in camps around Asia for several years as resettlement countries have refused to accept them.
The two-day meeting in Bangkok will decide the future of Vietnamese asylum-seekers in the region.
Co-ordinated by the UNHCR's Asia director, Werner Blatter, the talks offer the final opportunity to map out a means of meeting the deadline to empty all Vietnamese camps by the end of next year.
