year 1992 admissions proposal of 52,000 for the region reflects our commitment to the continued success of the CPA as well as to the resettlement of Amerasians and former reeducation center detainees from Vietnam through the Orderly Departure Program.

As a

During the past year, an interagency effort involving INS and the Department of State has allowed the United States almost to double to a level of 10,000 the number of persons interviewed each month by the Orderly Departure Program. result, we hope to be able to complete all Amerasian interviews by mid-1992 and by late 1992 to have eliminated the backlog in immigrant visa issuance in Vietnam. Former reeducation center detainees are now being admitted to the United States at a rate of almost 2,000 per month. We believe that this dramatic expansion has underscored our commitment to resettlement of these persons of humanitarian concern to the United States. At the same time, we hope that persons contemplating clandestine boat departures will understand that we view the Orderly Departure Program as the most secure method and the focal point for the U.S. refugee effort for Vietnamese.

Other Regions of the World

In other regions of the world

-

Africa, the Near East,

continues resettlement programs appropriate to the local needs. Moreover, we are working with UNHCR to establish mechanisms which will allow our admissions program to be even more responsive to finding resettlement opportunities for high risk or other priority needs cases. Details on our admissions proposals for these regions are provided in the report we have submitted to the Committee.

Conclusion

To summarize the lessons of this past year in refugee affairs is difficult. The collapse of totalitarian communism in the USSR is clearly a cause for optimism. The United States is seeking to expand its existing ties and contacts with the new Baltic states and the Soviet republics, but we will in no measure reduce our emphasis on human rights and the treatment of minority populations. The United States will seize every new opportunity to work toward conflict resolution and peaceful political settlement around the world. For large numbers of the world's refugees, we are hopeful that the international community can redirect its resources to repatriation. Where the last four decades have seen an inexorable increase in the world total of refugees, it is our goal in the 1990s to see these numbers decline dramatically.

But there will also be continuing challenges. Communist regimes in Vietnam and Cuba will continue to produce refugees. Iraq, Liberia, the Horn of Africa, and now Yugoslavia demonstrate all too well the potential for local conflict and instability. Moreover, beyond the populations of refugees

fleeing persecution and conflict situations, the 1990s will

also present the developed world with vexing policy and legal issues in coping with what are anticipated to be huge numbers

of asylum seekers and other international migrants.

It will be

-

with our

incumbent upon the United States to be engaged
allies and friends, as well as with the source countries

in

seeking solutions to these problems on a worldwide basis. Although the era of Soviet Communism may be over, the refugee and migration phenomenon will not disappear.

For the

foreseeable future, the United States must and will continue to perform the humanitarian leadership role which throughout the Cold War so clearly symbolized what the free world is all about.

United States Department of State

Washington, D.C. 20520

October 21, 1991

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Following the September 24, 1991 hearing at which Mr. Fagleburger testified, additional questions were submitted for the record. Please find enclosed the responses to those questions.

Enclosures:

As stated.

The Honorable

Sincerely,

Janet G. Mullins
Assistant Secretary
Legislative Affairs

Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman,

Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs,
Committee on the Judiciary,

United States Senate.

As we stated in our letter to the President concluding this year's refugee consultations, one of the Committee's concerns is that we are falling into a pattern of admitting more refugees than the refugee resettlement budget for State and local costs provides. Contrary to the explicit provisions of The Refugee Act, we are, in effect, transferring the costs of a federal policy as humane and as important as it is local governments.

upon State and

This results partly from the continued high admissions numbers requested each year which, in turn, are a result of continuing refugee "pipelines" which have developed in two regions of the world where more than half the refugee resettlement caseload is allocated. So it is more important than ever to assure that those admitted are political refugees of "special humanitarian concern" to the United States.

The oldest and longest pipeline has been in Indochina where, since enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980, the United States has processed and admitted refugees and others at an annual rate averaging over 70,000 each year for a total of approximately 750,000. For the information of the Subcommittee and to assist in our planning for the next fiscal year, we would like to receive, in as detailed a fashion as the Department can provide, the answers to these questions for each country in Indochina:

1. Detail the number of Amerasian (considered "refugees" for purposes of domestic assistance) and political prisoner cases currently being processed and presumed likely to be eligible for admission as refugees in the foreseeable future projected dates of completion of these two caseloads.

and the

2. Detail the number of other refugees (in addition to Amerasians and political prisoners) likely to be admitted under the Orderly Departure Program this year and in the future by