Vietnam: 1) What are the restrictions placed on and implications for Vietnamese applying from Vietnam to come to Canada for permanent residence (family reunification basis)? 2) What are the implications for those refused permanent residence by Canada?

1) In May 1979, the Orderly Departure Programme (ODP) was established following an agreement between the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the UNHCR in order to allow Vietnamese to apply for emigration to Western nations from Viet Nam [ Kumin J. 1988, "Orderly Departure: A Humanitarian Alternative", Refugees, September 1988: 11.]. As of July 1988, a total of 24,862 Vietnamese had come to Canada under the ODP [Idem.]. The programme is limited to people with relatives abroad [ Netter T.W. 1986, "U.N. Gives 100,000 Vietnamese a Safe Exit", New York Times, 20 January 1986: A12.]. The departures under that programme are allegedly rendered more difficult for ethnic-Vietnamese than for Chinese from Viet Nam [ U.S. Department of State, 1984, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1983, Washington: Government Printing Office: 905.]. Until recently, the Vietnamese authorities imposed restrictions on interviews for departure under the ODP [ U.S. Department of State, 1989, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, Washington: Government Printing Office: 963.]. The Canadian Employment and Immigration Commission, for its parts, reported that the Vietnamese Government did not show much cooperation in matching lists of Vietnamese accepted by Canada and those of people presented presented by Viet Nam as candidates to emigration [ Phone conversation of 20 November 1989 with a spokesperson from the CEIC in Ottawa.]. A representative of the UNHCR who has worked in a community organization for the Vietnamese refugees added that prospective emigrants in Viet Nam were often revoked their identity papers (and therefore access to food rations), fired from their job, and that they had to bribe emigration officials in order to have their application proceeded [ Telephone conversation of 27 November 1989, Ottawa.].

2) Only information on returnees, whose case is similar to those refused on the ODP, is presently available at the IRB Documentation Centre. Viet Nam has shown reluctance to repatriation, stating that it did not want to recuperate its "parias" [ Weber O. 1989, "Hongkong: dehors les boat people!", Le Point, 26 June 1989; second page, second column, third paragraph.]. The UNHCR, moreover, can not assure the safety of returnees once they are accepted by Viet Nam [ Mauthner R. 1989, "A World Lacking in Safe Havens", Financial Times, 13 June 1989; second page, second column, second paragraph.].